Al-Ma'idah 81: If they believed in Allah, the Messenger and what has been sent down to him, they would not take them (the idolaters) as friends. However, most of them have gone astray.

We have come to Surah Al-Ma'idah, verse 81. If they had believed in Allah, the Prophet and in what was sent down to him, they would not have taken them as friends. But most of them have gone astray. Most — so there are also (?). So, had they believed in Allah, the Prophet and what was sent down to him. That is, had they entered Islam, had they become Muslims. Yes, those polytheists as friends they would not have taken. Had they believed in Allah, the Prophet and what was sent down to them, O My Beloved, they would also have believed in your prophethood. Again, had they believed, they would not have held the polytheists as friends.

So, whoever envies non-Muslims is like them. How beautifully this verse shows us the way.

A Muslim, a believing Muslim, if he sees a Muslim making a mistake, is saddened, and tells him he has made a mistake.

If he sees him on a bad path — he is a Muslim — he immediately wants to stop him on that bad path. But a person whose faith is weak, who is in doubt, adopts the evil done by the non-Muslim as his way. 'Look what nice things he does,' he says. So, (?). That is, a person who, from weakness of faith or from being in suspense, has not fully believed, who is himself in doubt, and between faith and faithlessness wanders — (?) the nafs, since it will grow familiar with evils, will envy those people who live outside Islam and will adopt their way of life as his own. So, whoever envies non-Muslims is like them. How beautifully the verses come out, how beautifully they support each other.

Indeed, most of them are people who have gone astray. They are people who follow the footsteps of their nafs and of Satan. In the books in their hands, in all the miracles Allah has shown through you, people who do not believe — in the books in their hands, of the Prophet (peace be upon him) the description is written. Again, the book in their hands announces that the (?) prophet will come. But they removed these writings and, denying the prophet sent by Allah, not believing in the Quran either, turning their backs on Allah — such people they are.

They are people who follow their nafs and Satan's (?). In the books in their hands, in all the miracles Allah has shown through you, people who do not believe. People who before, at Kalû Belâ too, gave their covenant badly and did not believe, they are. Therefore, since no person can change the destiny he had written for himself in line with his wishes, and since most of these people are upon a bad covenant, your duty is only to convey the truth to them. Because guidance is from Allah; this guidance Allah only (?). Yes, to the one who asks, not to whom He wishes. Whoever asks Allah for guidance, He gives him guidance.

Because partial will means people, a person, asking with his own will, and Allah Almighty granting him His mercy in proportion to that will.

After they said yes at Kalû Belâ, after saying 'You are my Lord', how they denied Allah during their covenant.

Here we say there is a very subtle secret. We will pass without opening that side of it. Explaining it could harm people. We will try to explain the rest of the verse. At Kalû Belâ the souls are in three groups.

Fe ashâbü'l-meymeneti mâ ashâbü'l-meymeneh. O people of the right, glad tidings to you. Ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü'l-meş'emeh. O people of the left, woe to you. Ve's-sâbikûne's-sâbikûn, ülâike'l-mukarrabûn. And there is the group of the foremost. These are the martyrs, (?), the saints, the prophets — that group. Think (?). A perfectly flat plain, in the faint twilight of evening, these three groups, in three sections, in a neat line, the front rows being visible and the rearmost rows also visible, while in the faint twilight the individuals cannot be recognised. Yes.

In a setting where individuals cannot be recognised, Allah Almighty says 'I am your Lord', and upon this, there, the souls' states of obeying and not obeying Allah Almighty arose. Although the Prophet, confirming Allah Almighty, strove for all souls to confirm Him, although he strove for all souls to confirm Him, still it is people's (?) toward Allah and their stubborn insistence on not recognising Him. As we explained before, although our Lord said to you 'I am your Lord', and the Prophet (peace be upon him) too, saying 'Yes, this is our Lord', (?) people and (?) 'Confirm Him.' That is, with the Prophet also bearing witness beside Him as a confirmer, people still expect a Lord according to their own imagination.

Because, since Allah Almighty gave man from His spirit, since man resembles his Lord, man there, his Lord as Lord, out of greatness and pride, out of arrogance and grandeur, did not want to recognise. They waited for the Lord of their own imagination. So, because Allah Almighty is free of deficient attributes, these worlds He created. This material world where man can live, in a way suited to man's life, He furnished, and He brought man to this earth and placed him. 'Come now,' He says, 'you are in a world where My essence is not seen, where I am hidden.' Well, though He says 'I will make My essence known to you, and obey Me', still their covenant there (?), since their own wishes, desires and aims were written for them as destiny, the characters given to them within those destinies, still, although they know Allah in this world, from the state of denial cannot escape. Yes.

Here such a question may come to mind. How can a person rebel against Allah who created him, and not recognise Allah as Allah? We have just explained this already. Let us look here too at how we (?). Look, a few lines above, up there: 'Here there is a subtle secret.' 'We will pass over this closed and tell you the rest' — the secret you mentioned, of this problem of ours, of our question, is the answer. This is a point people cannot comprehend. Therefore we pass over this closed. When the Prophet ascended on the Mi'raj, some secrets he saw there he told to the (?), we say. As long as these (?) kept this secret, the rule of the sharia continued. If every truth is told everywhere, it harms people.

Therefore there is benefit in not telling some secrets, we have said. Since we wrote this book for the general public, as I am telling you here, such matters as our Lord giving us of His spirit, creating us close to His essence, we closed off there. But here we are opening it to you. If you have questions — since we are here with you live anyway, and since we are duty-bound to answer you and show you the truth, I can open these secrets to you. When we say secret, we don't mean forbidden secrets. There are also forbidden secrets. There are forbidden secrets, not to be disclosed to people. These fall under this verse: When We created these worlds, We did not take Satan and his companions as witnesses.

They fall under that verse. Telling these harms people. Therefore these are forbidden.

A second question. But Allah says, 'They said yes.' And you say they rebelled against Allah. Does this not contradict the verse here? I explained this matter in the first volume. There is benefit in explaining it here again too. 'I see,' I say. Also, at Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, I will explain it. When the time comes again to touch on this matter, we will touch on it briefly and move on. The reason we repeat these is that it is not customary knowledge. It has only remained hidden, untold, by very high saints. Since people of that time did not need this knowledge, the matter of the covenant was completely covered over and buried in ashes.

Allah's saintly servants never run out. Except for the very few people who are versed in this knowledge, the others are unaware of these verses. Yes. I mean, by Ahmet and Mehmet giving each other diplomas, this knowledge, these verses are not unravelled. Yes. So all created souls, in such an open field, are addressed by Allah Almighty: I am your Lord. Although the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, 'Yes, this is our Lord', those of the left, of whom it says ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü, denied. Allah did not take their denial into account. The reason is that by giving the souls the intellect He created to make His essence known — what we call akıl maddi, that is, what we call aklı maat — although this intellect said 'Yes, this is our Lord', man, from his nafs, denied Allah.

Therefore Allah, who is free of deficient attributes, calls them lying disbelievers. The reason for this too is that at the first covenant, at the root, they lied, and although they knew Allah, they denied and rebelled. Then, making a covenant with each soul separately, He wrote all their wishes and desires for them as destiny. Now, here, when they said yes — yes, they know that they were created by a Lord. That is, there is an Allah; they have suddenly come into being. In this coming into being, they were created by a Lord. The intellect too already proves that it was created. Before the Lord (?) who created him; but out of his nafs's pride and arrogance he does not recognise Him.

He waits for the Lord of his own imagination. So Allah Almighty too, with the verse, said: they will not be able to see their Lord. (?) Yes.

Since the akıl maat (?) knows Allah — that is, although it knows it was created by an Allah — because they bear witness to Allah within themselves, their denial was not taken into account. Therefore Allah says of them: they said yes. That is, these too know that they were created by a Lord. Yes. Although they know there is an Allah who created them, they denied Allah. For this reason, with the verse I mentioned above, Allah, addressing them, called them lying disbelievers. This matter we will explain in more detail at Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, once more. May Allah grant us all good comprehension and understanding and make us servants to Himself and a community to His Beloved. So we said. We concluded the verse here.

Yes.