Al-Ma'idah 9: Allah has made a promise to those who believe and commit good (salih) deeds. There is forgiveness for them and there is a great reward.

He has given a promise to those who believe in Allah and do good deeds. Allah has given a promise to those who believe and do good deeds. To them forgiveness and great rewards are given. Now, here there is a wording as if Allah Almighty made a distinction among people. What does it say? Allah has given a promise to those who believe and do good deeds, it says.

Did He not give a promise to the polytheists?

That is, did Allah Almighty give a promise only to those who do good deeds? Here our Lord Himself, since He speaks of the reward of those who do good deeds, since He speaks of the reward with Him, He shows it as good deeds. Otherwise, a promise has come from Us, it says. What is this promise? That Paradise and Hell are everlasting. Sir, those who do good deeds will attain Paradise, and those who do evil deeds will attain Hell.

This too is a promise from Allah.

For those who do evil deeds, that is, those who do evil deeds and do not repent, who go to the Hereafter without faith, Hell has become everlasting. Sir, Allah Almighty has also given a promise to those who do good deeds and believe, to those who believe and do good deeds. What does it say? In return for what you have done, We promise you Paradise as a reward, it says. Paradise. Yes. Forgiveness and a great reward, it says. Forgiveness. Yes, here forgiveness. Because people were created deficient, that is, created deficient in intellect, they are not free from error.

So then. People commit mistakes. They become sinners. Since He accepts the repentance of those who go with faith and repent of their sins, Allah Almighty says to them: forgiveness, that is, pardon. Because what was the purpose of faith? He will create man deficient. Not in body; He will create him deficient in intellect. With their deficiency of intellect people will commit mistakes. When they become aware of these mistakes, they will ask Allah Almighty for pardon and forgiveness. That is, knowing their helplessness, they will submit to the Lord who created them. And for these mistakes they made, Allah Almighty says to them: a forgiveness, pardon.

Yes. And what He calls a great reward, what is the greatest reward? It is winning Paradise. That is the greatest victory anyway. Yes. To those who believe in Allah and do good deeds, Allah Almighty has given a promise. He will both forgive them and, as I said, in their sins, sir, grant pardon and forgiveness, and also give them rewards from Himself. From Himself.

The rewards from Himself here are, against the good deeds we have done, one to three, one to five, one to seven, one to seven, and His increasing our rewards. Allah Almighty's. In this case this too becomes a reward. But the greatest reward is Paradise. It is winning that place. He will obey Allah's commands. He will break the evil desires of his nafs for Allah's sake. He will not run after his nafs. He will not follow in Satan's footsteps. He will not chase after the taghut. That is, he will not follow evil people, those who do evil deeds. Being content with what comes from Allah, he will work for Allah.

He will raise himself in the best way, both in worldly and in otherworldly terms. He will be an example to people in knowledge and in morals. The religion of Islam is the most progressive and future-oriented religion. The Prophet (peace be upon him), in one of his hadiths, saying 'do not put your children into their father's profession', commands: as people who continually invent new things, these sciences, provide people with new sources of income and raise their standard of living. In this verse Allah Almighty commands: develop your world. In a verse. Develop your world. Yes. So that, it says, your enemies may fear you.

Sir, they may obey you or become Muslim, or because they fear (?) you will be at ease, it says. So the human whom Allah created as His (?), working like this with good deeds, with justice, with knowledge, and acting in ways befitting Allah's glory, in Allah's sight is in accord with Allah's purpose in creating man. To such people Allah also makes promises. O you who believe! You are the lights of the earth. They are like the stars in the sky. Who? People who are in accord with Allah Almighty's purpose of creation. Just as stars shine in the darkness of night in clear weather, these are the stars of the earth.

So Allah Almighty addresses these angels He created. O My angels, do you see? Look at these people; He points to those people who (?). Did they see Me? They did not see You, O Allah, they say. Did they see Me on earth, He says? They did not see You, O Allah.

Do you see, He says, how they worship Me, He says. Give them My greetings, He says. Allah's mercy, His blessing upon those people, for the sake of those people the universe is forgiven. Yes.

You are the lights of the earth. Do not put out this light, obey My commands, attain relief in this world and the Hereafter, He commands. Allah Almighty to people. O you who believe! O you who believe! You who obey Allah and the Book He sent to His Messenger, who accept it, do not, like non-Muslims, covet each other's lives, property and honour. Yes, a Muslim's property, life and honour are forbidden to one another. In this case Islam is brotherhood. See how beautifully the verses support each other anyway. Yes, unfortunately, we say, the Muslim of faith, making concessions from faith, making concessions from his faith, has fallen into pleasure and amusement, unaware of his future, his future; what is this future?

This world's life, the life lived within the world, a lifespan that will end one day, compared to the Hereafter a very short time. In the world it seems to man like a very long time. According to the verse 'every soul shall taste death and your return is to Me', the person who cannot remember that man will pass to the world of the Hereafter and give account in God's presence at that great court, or the person who (?) and, deifying his nafs, makes concessions from his own faith, yes.

Unaware of his future, he is being dragged along dark paths. That is, in his pleasure and amusement, in the trickery and evil he does to his brothers to win the world, outside Allah's command, and the person used to clinging faithfully to all kinds of events and following Satan's footsteps: dark paths.

If we take a look at history, nations that fell into pleasure and amusement and collapsed morally could not escape falling into captivity under other nations.

We said it in our previous lesson too: one, the collapse of a state comes about when three elements come together. Three elements. What are these elements? A nation's moral collapse, bribery entering government offices, the state's administrators being incompetent people. In this case, when these three elements come together, that state collapses.

People who love their wives and children very much and prepare something for them, as long as they do not give up themselves and their lustful feelings, their pleasure and amusement, as long as they continue immoral behaviour, should know that both their wives and children and their homeland are being dragged onto dark paths, they should know. And their homeland too. Why their homeland? Because since these have collapsed morally, they do not serve that homeland either. So Allah grants people life with His verses. Life, but man turns his back on these verses. If life (?) to him and immorality is presented as glory and fame, that nation's spiritual feelings have been destroyed; it has become ready for collapse.

Yes. So Allah wants to protect people both in this world and in the Hereafter. Both in worldly terms and in the Hereafter. In the world, the forgiveness of your sins as you know your helplessness, owing to your being created deficient in intellect, and submit to your Lord; and in the world of the Hereafter, the highest Paradise by (?) being given to people.

Allah's verses are a source of guidance for people and a guide and light before them. A guide and light before people.

According to the verse 'who is as faithful to his word as Allah' (?), man will turn to Allah. If he (?) judgement by His commands, he will have made both worlds prosperous. This person will have risen in both worlds. Yes.

If a believer cannot share in the state of another believer, his faith has not reached perfection, says the hadith. If a believer cannot share in the state of another believer, his faith has not reached perfection. Why? The believer's faith will reach perfection; reaching perfection means he will reform his nafs. He will become aware of those manifestations, attain that attribute of believer, and this believer will not want for his brother any event he does not want for himself. If he cannot feel a misfortune that has befallen his brother as if it had befallen himself, and cannot be of one mind with him, his faith has not reached perfection.

According to the hadith, may Allah grant all of us unity and togetherness, and sharing in each other's troubles, rejoicing in each other's joy, granting these feelings, and may He grant and make easy living like brothers, we said. Yes.

How life-giving the verses are to man, how compassionate and merciful our Lord is towards people, and how beautifully He makes known to people His verses that will protect them. But see, the human nafs turns its back on Allah's verses. If those people were governed by Allah's verses, they would both enjoy life and find peace, and he himself, within glory and fame, gloriously, owing to man's honourable creation, would lead a life in the world. But as long as he follows his nafs, he is not aware that he is leading a life of humiliation. Whether man or woman, whoever it is, as long as they do not follow Allah's commands, today events are happening before our eyes.

People leave one and go to another, fall away from the other and get up. And people towards one another, women uncovering and undressing. In this case they suffer many assaults, many deceptions, and as a result of many deceptions they suffer disappointment and loss and make themselves humiliated and wretched. Is this a human being? If she were governed by Allah's command, if she protected her honour and chastity, and if the man too observed Allah's command, 'if a woman gives herself to you without a dowry, (?) is forbidden', according to the verse, if he knew that that person, that woman, is forbidden to him, and protected his brother's honour, his glory and dignity in such a way as not to covet his brother's honour and chastity, the world would be lived in a festive atmosphere.

In the world.

But unfortunately the human nafs, that whatever kind of nafs it is, (?), fame, adorned with desires such as pride, arrogance, grandeur, ego and worldly desire, the honourable and noble paths Allah Almighty has shown it, without embracing them, within its own being that helplessness (?), correcting it; if only he could know how low he has sunk before Allah's verses, and tomorrow, tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, with that life of his, that pride and arrogance, that conduct against Allah's command, what answer he could give in His presence, if only he knew, and if only he knew what his place will be, if only he knew, yes, we, among the created beings in the universe, were created the noblest of creatures and the most excellent.

We will repeat this verse until the Quran ends.

I created man in the most beautiful form, He says. There is no being created in a more beautiful form than man. Because Allah Almighty gave man of His spirit and held him as addressee of His Essence. So man will try to be worthy of a place. Man will give his place its due.

A minister, a member of parliament, he too is a human; he goes to a coffee house, can he sit in that coffee house? He goes to a tavern; in that tavern can he befriend drunkards? Even if he may be a drunkard himself. So just as they protect their positions and places, as a human, if he protects his position in the world, his position, because if that human cannot protect man's position of creation as a human, Allah Almighty to that person, to that person too, since he was created, without distinguishing him from His other creatures, says exactly this verse. They are like four-legged animals walking the earth, He says.

In fact, in one verse He says they are even more astray in their way. So in this case, if in this transient worldly life this person turns his few hours of life into the eternal abode of torment of the Hereafter, what use is it if this person is the most beautiful person in the world? What use is it if this person is the cleverest person in the world? And since this person is human in form but animal in character, human in form but animal in character, as Allah Almighty says, like four-legged animals walking on the earth, what use is he as a human? And if people too incline towards such people, what difference remains between that person and that one?

So man will know what he is doing. The Muslim is conscious, the Muslim is intelligent, the Muslim knows the step he takes, the Muslim knows how to stand on his own feet. Because they are governed by Allah's verses. Allah, with His life-giving verses, wants so beautifully to grant man the honour of humanity. As the highest of the created beings He created, how Allah Almighty shows those beautiful people as examples to His creatures; would you not want to join these examples? Yes, so use your intellect; we will always say it. The intellect is very great, because Allah Almighty says: do you not use your intellect at all, do you not reflect at all, He says.

Do you not think at all? Why? You came to the world as to a guesthouse, living your life in the guesthouse, to prove, within a set lifespan, what kind of person you are. (?) will think about this.

O (?) man! So if there is One who created you, and if the One who created you shows you the most beautiful paths,

if with this intellect you cannot obey that Lord, that (?) and intellect, who created you, what use will your intellect be?

So man will reflect a little. Yes.