Al-Ma'idah 12: Verily, Allah had made a covenant with the sons of Israel and had sent twelve leaders from among them. Allah said to them; “I am with you. If you establish the prayer, give the obligatory alm (zakah), believe in Allah’s Prophets, support them and give a beautiful loan to Allah (giving loans to the needy free of interest), I will surely cover your sins and put you in the Paradises beneath which rivers flow. Those who follow the path of denial after this, would surely be gone astray from the right path.

Al-Ma'idah Surah, we have come to its 12th verse. It is going well, I think, God willing. What beautiful verses, all within one another, all supporting one another. A beautiful flow, a beautiful connection. A beautiful sound heart, a beautiful feeling, and with our longing for Allah, our submission to our Lord. Indeed, Allah had taken a promise from the Children of Israel. These are wrongly explained verses. And We had sent 12 leaders from among them as envoys, it says. Allah had said to them: I am with you. If you establish the prayer properly, give zakat, believe in your prophets, support them and lend Allah a good loan, if you lend interest-free to those in need for Allah's sake, then by Allah I will cover your sins and admit you into gardens (?) which rivers flow.

Whoever of you takes the path of disbelief after this has strayed from the right path.

Indeed, Allah had taken a promise from the Children of Israel, it says. Had taken a promise. "Had taken a promise" is something else. Indeed, Allah made a covenant with the Children of Israel too. That is, in that address, "Elestü bi-Rabbiküm". What does it say? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Ve lekad ehazallâhu mîsâka. Ve lekad: indeed.

Ehazallâhu. Ehaze. He made a covenant, it says. He made a covenant. Sir, this is not "took a promise". If they speak by their own minds, this is how they translate Allah's word. What does it say?

He made a covenant with them. The verse says He bound the covenant. That is, He bound the covenant with everyone. With the Children of Israel too; He set no one apart. In the world of souls He made a covenant with everyone, one by one. To go and say "Indeed, Allah took a promise from the Children of Israel", to say "had taken a promise", tying it to that people alone... Yes. We are correcting these anyway. If Allah grants it.

This first edition of ours is no different from the second edition. We will do the second edition. There is one change. For example the verse "Indeed, Allah had taken a promise from the Children of Israel". We regard the whole verse as wrong. We colour it red. We write it in red. On the same page we put the correct one below it. We say: Indeed, He made a covenant with the Children of Israel too. We write that in green. In this way the same verses appear there, the crooked and the right, side by side. On the same page. On the same page four or five verse pairs are written. We write it that way. For example verse 12, let's say. One red, one green.

Verse 15. One red, one green. For example verse 16. One red, one green. If you ask how I fit it in, Hodja, I adjust the pages. I reduce the font size. I reduce the spacing on the page.

By making the characters smaller I fit them on the page. I fit them on one page. And this way we have reached about 500 pages. In the Quran. I have 10 days of work left. Since I have just come back from a trip, there are some gaps here. I am dealing with them. From morning till evening. In fact, yesterday I went from Samsun. Today I came back from Samsun again. So we travel around. I mean, it is not sightseeing, not (?). We go back and forth for some business. Still, so that we can give our lesson on time, we arrange those matters accordingly. We don't say we are tired today. We don't say we have just come off the road.

We try to sit with you and have a pleasant (?). And we try to explain Allah's verses. I said it at the very beginning, didn't I? I said that as long as I live, until my last breath, I will not stop telling about my Lord. Yes. We will explain this.

What do we say? Allah Almighty had taken the promise. In this first edition we write it that way. But we give its explanation anyway. The commentaries, events like this, we write the same way too. So there is no change. What this means: Allah Almighty took a promise from all people at Qalu Bala. So even though the verse was written wrongly, we (?) them. Because there was no time; we had to bring this out in a hurry. In a hurry. Without writing the translation, we wrote this according to those translations, but we translate this apart from that translation. That is, we try to write it as the equivalent of its true meaning, as we have already explained: what do we say now? Indeed, He also took a promise from the Children of Israel.

What this means: Allah Almighty took a promise from all people at Qalu Bala. On earth, Allah Almighty does not again make a covenant or take a promise with any people. On earth. He makes no covenant, takes no promise from any people. That would be a bargain, which does not befit Allah. Yes.

In one verse: We divided you into peoples on earth so that you may quickly be recognised, it says. With this verse, when its turn comes, it will be explained to you in detail, we say. Being divided into peoples: each person, with a mindset, within that mindset being able to sustain a life among those people, within those understandings, within those feelings; that person will live within that people so that, through their life, they prove what kind of person they are. For example we say an Englishman with a Frenchman, a Frenchman with a German, a German with an American cannot get along. One cannot get along with a (?).

So, people by people, they have been divided according to their own feelings. So that they can prove themselves in the best way. In that case all of these, at Qalu Bala, while making a covenant with Allah Almighty, have their own wishes, desires and aims written for them as destiny, and there is no such claim that Allah Almighty, on earth, took a promise from this one, took a promise from that one. Allah forbid. You would have (?) Allah into bargaining on earth. This does not befit Allah. Then let Him make a contract with us too, let Him appear to us too, make a covenant with us too, take a promise from us too.

Yes. Those are writings spoken by short minds. Those words do not fit with knowledge, that is, they do not fit with Allah's verses. Here we open it up. What do we say? Indeed, Allah had taken a promise from the Children of Israel. What this means: Allah Almighty took a promise from all people at Qalu Bala. Yes. You know, when He said "I am your Lord", in Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, what does the verse say? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. We made a covenant with those who would emerge from the offspring of the children of Adam, it says. We made a covenant. And We told them: We are your Lord, it says. "Are We not?" We said. We are your Lord, We said, it says.

So, according to the covenant there, matters are settled. On earth, Allah Almighty does not again make a covenant or take a promise with any people at all. In one verse: We divided you into peoples on earth so that you may quickly be recognised, it says. In this verse too, when its turn comes, it will be opened up to you in detail, it says. In fact, people were divided into peoples in the world of the hereafter. All people are tested in the worldly realm with the covenants they gave. Allah, who knows from the covenants they gave that they are a people who do not listen, creates events for what the people of Israel will do, to make them witnesses of themselves, and people too, faced with these events, put the feelings in their nature into action and make those around them and Allah witnesses of themselves.

Allah Almighty, toward people, while people are in the world, treating the first people according to the promise that people gave, then, when that people did not listen to Him, Allah being offended with them, punishing them: these are attributes ascribed to Allah. Yes. That is, "if this people listens to Me", which is what it says anyway, "hopefully it will do so". Sir, "hopefully this will turn out like this." Now what does this point to? That is, as if He told them this in the world and they did not listen. With stories like "this happened and then that happened", they (?) Allah to their own minds and blame Him.

I repeat. Why do they say this? What is the reason?

They know Arabic, you see. That's why. They know a lot. For this reason they (?) it that way. Yes. Now, for what the people of Israel will do, He creates the events to (?) them. And people, faced with these events, put the feelings in their nature into action, and to those around and to Allah they act as witnesses of themselves. Allah Almighty, while people are in the world, treating a people according to the promise it gave, then, when that people did not listen to Him, Allah being offended with them, punishing them: this ascribes attributes to Allah. God forbid, as if Allah, not knowing the future, like people toward one another, according to their behaviour... Yes.

turns to the stance they will take, whereas Allah is free from such things. In a second case, if the Jewish people is cursed, the Jewish people to come until the Day of Judgement is cursed. Very few of them find the truth and turn to the truth. They turn, they are excepted. These are excepted. Yes.

That is, saying "curse" again ascribes attributes to Allah. That is, saying "you did this back then, so I will do this to your descendants" ascribes attributes to Allah. You know the verse: We divided you into peoples on earth so that you may quickly be recognised; people with the same (?), within the same mindsets, with the same intentions come from within the same people. So those who will come until the Day of Judgement, and the people who will do the same deed with the same (?), are cursed too, just as those were cursed there. Within the same feelings. Yes. Yes, if He calls them cursed, they are cursed.

Those to come until the Day of Judgement are cursed too. Those people are not from their loins. Because they are within the same feelings, their coming from one another's loins, what do they call it? One another, but the truth was separated there. There, within those mentalities, a group, a society; those who are cursed all come from there like that. Then Allah Almighty places stars among these cursed ones. Stars. They perform the prayer and give zakat, it says. They are hidden among them. They worship in secret, it says. These are excepted, it says. Yes.

Especially in this case, being angry at the people in the time of Moses and also punishing a people who are their grandchildren and descendants, that is, cursing them: again these are attributes ascribed to Allah. Whereas, since the covenants these gave at Qalu Bala are the same as one another, people of the same people and the same understanding were divided into peoples. For this reason, if the Jews to come until the Day of Judgement are cursed, except those among them who know the truth, you know, the stars He placed among them, they (?), because these are on the same path and of the same character and, being the continuation of the same people, will be upon the same wishes and deeds, which Allah knows, Allah, addressing them, says: We took a promise from the Children of Israel.

When they were not faithful to these promises, We cursed them, He says. Yes. That is, We made a covenant with them. They had Us program them according to their own wishes and desires. Yes.

Why does Allah Almighty place these stars among them?

We said Allah Almighty is free from deficient attributes. No one will be able to question Allah. Not because He put them under pressure or anything else. We say it is because what they would ask will have become manifest. By placing a Muslim soul among them: Look, these were among you too. They were among you. These did not go the way you went. These are among you. Knowing that you were cruel, that you turned your back on Allah and rebelled against Allah, fearing that harm would come to them too, out of fear of you as well they hid, but from Me too a pledge they did not give, He will say. They did not give, He will say.

Allah, who is free from deficient attributes. Yes. "We were afraid, sir, they would shun us, they would kill us, so we did this": He strips them of words like these, and those stars among them He shows to them.

Allah Almighty directed them with Moses to Jerusalem, declared Jerusalem to be their homeland, Allah Almighty informs us. And against the Canaanites ruling in Jerusalem He commanded them to fight. Thereupon, from the Jewish tribes, which were 12 tribes, Moses commanded that from each tribe one of the leading men be chosen. These would have keen ears, that is, people with the ability to gather news they would be. Gathering news. And these 12 people are chosen. They are sent into the tribe of Canaan. Before they are sent, Moses says: you will not tell anyone what you see, only to me will you tell it.

They go, and what they saw there, that the tribe of Canaan was very strong, that they were very big, that is, huge-built people: when they see this, they become afraid. Except one of them, the others go to their own tribe and report the situation. Except that one person; he comes to Moses and reports.

So, even though Allah Almighty gave them this command, even though He said go and fight there, even though Moses sent keen-eared men there and had news brought from there, these come and tell their own tribes, and they do not listen to Moses' word either. And what do those tribes say? O Moses, they are very strong people, we cannot fight them. You and Allah fight there, win the war, and then we will go there and settle, they say. Just look at what these people say. Yes, these would go to Jerusalem and examine the military situation and forces there. Moses calls these twelve men to himself. He commands that when they go to Jerusalem, they not tell what they see there to their tribes, that is, to the people, but tell it only to him.

So these 12 people go to Jerusalem, and when they return, of what they saw there, that they were prepared, that they were very strong, except 2 people, they tell the people. Not one person, it was two. Two people. One person had stayed in my memory. Two people. Thereupon the Jews give up fighting. Yet Allah had made them a promise. He had said: I am with you. Because the Jews feared human power rather than Allah's power and did not fight, and because this character is in their nature, Allah, what kind of people they are, making them witnesses of it through these events, cursed them.

Allah Almighty also makes them promises. If you perform the prayer, give zakat, believe in your prophets and support them, if you lend Allah a good interest-free loan, Allah will admit you into gardens from whose ground rivers flow; although He said this, of what Allah promised, not only did they do none of it, they also did the opposite. Lending people money with interest, the way of unjust gain, they made their profession. So, giving money to Allah without interest, that is, to people in need; does Allah need money? Could He not give to His servants in need? It is that, since we will be tested with one another, some of us, compared to others, in material terms are stronger. So in this case, in this world, within the covenants we gave, we are tested with one another.

Whoever of you takes the path of disbelief after this has strayed from the right path, says Allah Almighty. Yes, after so many events, Allah Almighty, in the face of His miracles, proved His existence openly to them as if Allah were beside them, and yet, with their hearts still hard and veiled toward Allah, their rebellion against Allah Almighty led them away from Allah's path, the straight path, to the bad path, the path to Hell. These are a people who went astray in the middle of a straight road.

Yes, a people who went astray in the middle of a straight road.