Al-An'am 23: And their excuse won’t be anything but saying “Swear by Allah, our Lord, we were not those who associated partners (with You)”.

Now, on my way to, um, do something, I dropped the glass. When I dropped it, an example from Atatürk came to mind.

Foreign commanders, high-ranking officers and statesmen come to visit Atatürk. Atatürk gives a banquet at Dolmabahçe Palace. The soldiers bustle around him.

One of the soldiers, while bringing food, drops a plate, and it breaks. Atatürk answers at once. "I just could not teach these soldiers," he says, "to act like ladies," he says. Yes. That is, my soldiers cannot manage what a lady manages, he says. "They are soldiers," he says. That came to my mind when I dropped it. And as you know, we have left everything to the ladies. We cannot manage like them. When we carry something somewhere, we are sure to break something.

Their saying these things this way is deceiving their own nafs.

It shows that they still have not understood that Allah Almighty has the attributes of Allah, that they cannot deceive Him. They still cannot understand. "We did not worship." "By Allah, we say, we did not worship it." They still think they will deceive Allah. When they made their covenant with Allah Almighty at Qalu Bala, because they, against Allah Almighty, grew arrogant and denied Him — Allah, who wrote their desires and wishes for them as their destiny — thinking that He would be fooled by their talking like this, these people saying to Allah Almighty, "Our Lord, by Allah, we were not those who associated partners" — that is, moreover, accusing Allah Almighty unjustly.

That is, when Allah Almighty said to them, "Where are your partners?", did He lie, Allah forbid? Never! Well, you did associate partners; you carried those mascots in your hand as lucky charms; you took food to idols; you stood before them and worshipped; we are witnesses too, we see it. You worship them, so why do you deny it there now? So, still within that age of ignorance, you are not going to (?), because your characters are like that.

As if Allah Almighty had some special (?) against them and had, rightly or wrongly, left them subject to punishment — that is how they accuse Allah. Indeed, in return for this (?) I mentioned, "they will not see their Lord," says Allah Almighty. They will not see their Lord. The reason: there is no god other than Allah. But they have interpreted this wrongly too. Some say that in this verse the disbelievers will be resurrected blind. Ah! I repent, I seek Allah's forgiveness. And some say it indicates that Allah will be seen in the highest Paradise. He will be seen anyway. If He is the judge of judges at the Supreme Court — Eleysallâhu bi-ahkemi'l-hâkimîn — if He is the judge and will settle your account, will an unseen Allah settle your account?

Now they will be waiting for the Lord of their own imagination anyway. When that imagined Lord does not come, they will keep waiting for Him. In that moment of waiting, in that hope, they will also burn in that fire. In the end that god will come and save them, and they will take revenge on Allah who created them. That is why, the more they burn there, the more they see the punishment, the more grudge they hold. And the more grudge they hold, they stay there forever. If they had not held that grudge and that nafs had reached perfection — it is impossible. Allah is not unjust to His servants. He would not leave them there forever.

In fact, what does He say? "If only they knew Me," He says. If only. That is, if only they knew Me. Do not forget the "if only". If only they knew Me.

As Muslims too: if only we knew our Lord well. If only we had feared His punishment. How will we give account to Him on that Day of Reckoning, with what face will we come before the Divine Presence — if only we had thought about that a little more in the world (?). Yes.

In one of His verses, Allah Almighty calls them lying disbelievers. Lying disbelievers. None of these disbelievers tells the truth, and Allah calls them lying disbelievers, we say. Not one of them tells the truth.

By Allah and by Allah again, I say it too: according to these verses, not one of them tells the truth. They are liars.

Without speaking of their inner state, let me tell you their outward state. I am a witness to many people. I am. They went into partnership with non-Muslims. How he praises the man! How the Muslim praises him! "He splits hairs," he says. "He is that careful," he says, "he keeps good accounts." He keeps the accounts. "He always keeps the accounts right," he says. They carry on, and it grows. The business grows. Now he has handed (?) over to him. Once it reaches a certain point, the man takes all the money and flees Turkey too.

I have witnessed three or five such cases.

I was living in Bahçelievler in Istanbul. I will not be able to remember the name. I know the name. A young man called Erdoğan. They were in the coal business.

He praises him a lot. "He is honest," he says.

As far as I remember, he makes off with either 175 or 275 thousand liras. May Allah grant safety. Gone for good.

From Zeytinburnu, (?)?

An Armenian swindles him. He sells his goods and property just to clear it. He was an honourable man. An honest man. He sells his possessions, sells his property to clear it. Are they all like this? All of them are like this. At root they are liars, denying Allah. Lying disbelievers. Their hearts are scattered and restless; there is no peace in them.

Yes.

In one of His verses, Allah Almighty calls them lying disbelievers. None of these disbelievers tells the truth, and Allah calls them lying disbelievers. None of them have told the truth.

None of them told the truth, and that is why He called them lying disbelievers. Well, although Muslims also lie, knowingly or unknowingly, do they not fall under this verse — Muslims too, we ask? Do they not fall under this verse? They do not. Muslims do not fall into the state of lying disbelievers, of lying Muslims.

The reason is that at the root he said, "You are my Lord", he found the truth, he found the truth. Later on earth, in the age of ignorance, or because of our imperfect creation, we also speak wrongly. Sometimes we follow our nafs and lie too. But we do not fall into this state of lying disbelievers. Liars — we do not fall into the state of lying Muslims. If He calls them lying disbelievers, we do not fall into the state of lying Muslims. Now here is a verse for you. "If they had not committed errors," Allah Almighty says so, "We would destroy them and create servants who commit errors on earth." In this error he may also lie: he thinks it true, and says what is false.

Or he lies knowingly, too. It is the age of ignorance. If Allah Almighty had cast Muslims too into their state because they lie, there would be no pardon and forgiveness from Allah Almighty. If He calls them lying disbelievers, and had put Muslims too into the state of lying Muslims, there would be no pardon and forgiveness. Yes. Well, is there no pardon and forgiveness for the disbelievers? If he turned from there, in their nature (?) the covenant is good, He has nothing to say to them anyway. "Until," it says — this is a period of time He gives to those among them who become Muslims. You will read it in, um... In what form?

We say "until". Not "so that it may be hoped". "Until." No such word. There is no word for it in the Arabic. That is why we say it this way. Yes.

Well, although Muslims also lie, knowingly or unknowingly, do they not fall under this verse? Muslims never fall under this verse. Because when the disbelievers made their covenant with Allah at Qalu Bala, since they knowingly denied Allah, since they lied at the root, they have come into the state of lying disbelievers. A Muslim never denies Allah. So in this respect he never falls into the state of lying disbelievers. If a Muslim — we say a Muslim never denies Allah, right — if he is a Muslim, he does not deny. If there is disbelief at the root, he too appears Muslim and in the end, as a disbeliever, turns away from the religion of Islam.

Yes. This is something to be explained more comprehensively, but since we will open the verses to you this way, we have passed over it like this. Those after us will understand too, inshallah. We try to open the verses to people beautifully. Except those who leave Islam and enter another made-up religion. We say it of them too. Since these people too are, at the root, in the state of those who deny Allah, living Islam will not save them from the secret of this verse. Indeed, when they turn away from Islam, at the root they will have fallen into the same state of lying disbelievers. Yes.