An-Nisa 125: Who is better in religion than the one who submits the whole self to Allah and who follows the religion of Abraham, who was proclaiming the only God is The One and Only Allah? Allah has made Abraham Allah’s friend.

Surah An-Nisa, verse 125. Upright in his deeds, giving himself to Allah, and a Abraham's: one who, upright in his deeds, gives himself to Allah and follows the religion of Abraham, who knew Allah as One: better in religion than such a one who is there? Allah took Abraham as a friend.

The verses always confirm one another. Now come and say interfaith dialogue. Go on, say it. Look at the verse. Come now, say interfaith dialogue, go on. Now, with that dialogue, an alliance was formed. As if they had existed yesterday, that is, their religions were accepted. An alliance was formed. Tomorrow, the day after, following the alliance, the religion of Islam will be anarchy, theirs will be the real one. Because since falsehood has come this far, tomorrow this falsehood will continue its rule. But Allah Almighty says: they think that with the blowing of their mouths they will put out Allah's light.

So Allah raises scholars until the Day of Judgement. The scholars destroy all their efforts in an instant. Now, what is it? One who, upright in his deeds, gives himself to Allah, that is, to one single God, besides whom there is no other god, la ilahe illallah, to the religion of tawhid, and Abraham, who knew Allah as One, Abraham, Abraham who knew Allah as One, who from that time on never worshipped idols, never associated partners with Allah, who follows the religion of him who knew Him as One: who is better in religion than such a one? Today, people who say interfaith dialogue, and as if they had religions of their own outside the religion of Islam, people who call Allah and Allah's Messenger the son of Allah, who call Mary His wife, who ascribe partners to Allah and commit shirk: can such people have religions?

Do they have religions?

Here is the verse; it is not I who say it, my Lord says it. What does He say? One who, upright in his deeds, gives himself to Allah, and Abraham's, who knew Allah as One: there is no god but Him. Allah has no son. Allah has no wife. Kul huvallâhu ehad, Allâhu's-samed. Lem yelid ve lem yûled, ve lem yekun lehû küfuven ehad. Well? He says it already, with verses. Who is better in religion than one who follows his religion? In religion. Better. In Allah's sight. Who is there who knows better than 'İnne'd-dîne 'inde'llâhi'l-İslâm'?

Let a person's religion look as good as it may. 'I am of such-and-such religion, the other is of such-and-such religion.' So what does He say? Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, that religion will never benefit him. Above, the verses always support each other. Look how beautiful.

Allah took Abraham as a friend, He says. Why? Because he never associated anything with Allah in any way. He was hanif, He says. Hanif. What does hanif mean? Since he reached the age of reason he never associated partners with Allah. Shall I tell you something? I too have never associated partners with Allah. I remember myself from the age of 3 or 4. Even as a child I used to say: who is Azrael to take my soul, I used to say. I remember this from childhood.

While my Lord exists, I say; while Allah exists, I used to say. Yes. of course, over time a person changes, develops, of course, yes, that the one charged will take the soul, will take it with (?), the one charged with the soul, Allah's appointed one, yes, to him we will give, we will hand over our souls. Allah Almighty, knower of the secrets of all hearts, wants people to be sincere; obedient to Allah and His Messenger, by observing His command, to be friends and upright, surrendering to Allah in their hearts, to surrender themselves to Allah: this is what it comes to. That is, the meaning here: there is no god but Allah.

O people, I created these worlds and you. There is no god but Me. I created you so that My Essence be known. And I created you close to My Essence. I made you the addressees of My Essence.

So never associate partners with Me, He says. These are great sins anyway. Not associating partners with Allah, not falling into shirk. Yes, know Me. I want nothing from you, He says. I created you so that you know Me. And I placed these worlds at your command. In this world I made you vicegerent. In the hereafter, in that eternal abode of bliss, I prepared places for you. Yes. What for? So that you say La ilahe illallah once, so that you say 'my Lord' once, I provided these lives for you, He says. Well, to say La ilahe illallah once to Allah who gives so many blessings, or to say 'my Lord': is that so heavy for this nafs?

Well, apart from La ilahe illallah, apart from a La ilahe illallah, is there yet another god? Well, though your Lord gives you so many blessings, offers them, though He wants nothing from you, though He wants you to know Allah only by your own wish and will, though all this, He spreads so many blessings before you, and is this nafs's desire so, so mighty that you cannot bow to your Lord and perform your five daily prayers? Is this nafs's desire so rebellious against Allah that you make it your emblem to live outside His commands? Or else you leave His religion. You do it to satisfy that nafs. Then, then you will come before Allah, who left you free in your own will.

In the end, in the end, those events you could not imagine will appear. Or the events you imagined, stayed in doubt about and said, 'is there really a hereafter at all?' will appear, and on that day of reckoning you will be among those who lose. Well, in this case, by preparing for yourself a place of eternal torment instead of eternal bliss, will you not have wronged your own nafs? and, blessed one, think: a transient world, a world of a few hours, and if you bent your neck a little, broke your nafs, obeyed your Lord, even if of these worlds (?) there were not, in this world you would keep this body of yours nicely healthy with bodily movements, and that world you never even imagined, perhaps said does not exist: Allah Almighty, for your body, has set some things for you, principles, commands.

Pray, He says; He makes you move. Fast, He says; He rests your body. Well, and entering Islam also gives you peace. Come on, thinking: what if that world you say does not exist appears before you, there, in this world, with your worship of Allah, when these appear before you in that true world you will say: how good that I did it. You will say: how good that I listened to Allah's command. Well, is it better to win that eternal world that never ends? Or is it better to have fun here for a world of a few hours and then, like the grasshopper, when winter comes, go hungry? This decision is now left to the person's own will.

Yes.

Allah Almighty, who knows the secrets of all their hearts, wants people to be sincere, obedient to Allah and His Messenger, by observing His command, to be friends and upright, surrendering to Allah in their hearts, to surrender themselves to Allah: this He wants. In this respect Allah Almighty presents Abraham (peace be upon him) as an example. Who is better in religion than one who follows the religion of Abraham, who knew Allah as One? He says. Yes, if we take this verse in a very broad sense and in a very lofty sense, we will say this: Hey, people who say 'I am Muslim', rejoice, we will say.

Both those who pray and those who don't, look, both those who pray and those who don't, those who fulfil Allah's command and those who don't, those who don't. Well, people who just say La ilahe illallah Muhammeden Resulullah, people who are Muslim: rejoice, we say, rejoice. Why? Because you have a religion that knows Allah as One. This is in the broad sense, the very broad sense. But when rights and law are observed, and Islam has its rights and its law, your ingratitude in the face of so many blessings from your Lord lowers your rank, and because you rebelled against your Lord you become subject to punishment.

But this punishment is not eternal like that of non-Muslims; it is a temporary punishment. For example, if the world is a likeness and shadow of the hereafter: for some crimes, well, in prisons 5 years, 10 years, 20, 30 years, whatever it is, if one lives long enough, one serves it and gets out. But with a life sentence one stays forever. One doesn't get out. Just like this. They too serve that punishment according to their punishments. The Muslims get out from there again. But for non-Muslims it is eternal, for life. They are there. Then there is no getting out.

In this respect Allah Almighty presents Abraham (peace be upon him) as an example. Who is better in religion than one who follows the religion of Abraham, who knew Allah as One, He says. Here Allah Almighty is praising the religion of Islam. People who are as Allah Almighty decrees, on Allah and His Messenger, never compromise. And these are people who surrender to Allah in their hearts. In their hearts. Such people, who believe that this world's pleasure, delight and life will one day end, but that the world of the hereafter is everlasting and permanent, that finally, when life in the visible world ends, one will return to Allah, who have firmly believed and had faith in this, are such people.

Yes.

Who are these? The believers. The believers. They never turn their faces anywhere other than to Allah and His Messenger. That is, they never give pledges to anyone outside of their Lord's commands. They fear Allah very much and love Allah Almighty very much. Keeping love of Allah alive in their hearts, they live with the heart's longing to reach Allah. That is, death does not frighten them. Death is when the beloved meets the beloved, the lover reaches the loved one: a day. Death is crossing that bridge, the bridge of death, and entering through the door of truth. Death is not terrible. Death, for those who do not carry out Allah's command, is terrible.

Why is this person afraid? Why is he afraid of death? The evils he committed, deep in his subconscious, frighten him when the matter of death comes to mind. He doesn't even want to hear the word death. But a Muslim, those people in love with Allah, through death will reach Allah: days they long for. Yes. For them death is entering a garden of Paradise, in that garden a moment when every kind of flower is smelled. That is death for them. They do not fear death. Yes.

Such people, who believe that this world's pleasure, delight and life will one day end, but that the world of the hereafter is everlasting and permanent, that finally, when life in the visible world ends, one will return to Allah, who have firmly believed and had faith in this, are such people. They never turn their faces anywhere other than to Allah and His Messenger. Keeping love of Allah alive in their hearts, they live longing for the day they will reach Allah. While living among people, in appearance, within the climate of the body, they are in the visible world. With bodies. Of course people's bodies are not going to turn to vapour and fly away.

Together with people. But the world of the heart, what we call the world of the heart, is in spirit. People are not single, as they appear. That is, body and soul, a matched double creation. Double. The soul was created, the body was created. A double creation appears in a single appearance. with the body, Allah Almighty did He not create the body of our father Adam from clay? Did He not create our souls earlier? Did He not breathe that soul into that body so that it could appear in the garb of a body? And does He not set up the human factory and, with that bodily world, put man's soul into that body? According to the verse 'when the souls are paired', in the hereafter will our bodies and our souls not come face to face?

Will our bodies not bear witness against our soul? Then will our soul not say to our bodies, why do you speak against me? And do they not say, Allah, who makes me speak, says speak? And then, saying you are returned to the One who first created, does it not taste death a second time? The body. The bodies. The verses are explicit. Yes.

while living among people, in appearance, within the climate of the body, they are in the visible world, the climate of the body, but in heart he is with his Lord; in the verse does Allah Almighty not say so: neither trade nor commerce diverts him from My remembrance, He says; you see him with them, with people, you see that person talking, but in mind and spirit he is in his Lord's presence, or in exchange with Him, or else receiving inspiration in the heart. You cannot know it. You cannot know him. Yes. But you cannot even imagine whether such a person exists. You cannot even imagine it. Allah is free of deficient attributes.

What did we say? Allah has the attribute of being Allah. Allah makes manifest every event that can come to a person's mind. This is Allah's attribute of being Allah. And man (?). Yes.

With the world of heart and spirit, as if in their Lord's presence, observing Allah's commands, they are compassionate and merciful toward Allah's creatures. When they speak, everything they say is in the light of the verses. Their speech is in the light of the verses. While speaking, he senses, millimetre by millimetre, the depression of the person before him, and drawing on the rights between himself and that person, or else because of the right he has over him, he may put some pressure on him. That pressure too is a mercy for the person before him. Because if that person curbs his nafs and reforms, being silent and mastering his nafs he learns.

Since everything those people do is for Allah, in this world of the heart you see that person bodily talking, or you see him in worldly matters, but in the spiritual state he is in his Lord's very presence, in exchange with Him. In the world of the heart. Yes.

With the world of heart and spirit, as if in their Lord's presence, observing Allah's commands, they are compassionate and merciful toward Allah's creatures. Reforming their nafs, they wrap themselves in the veils of decency and modesty. However Allah wants to see man on earth, living with those traits they make their emblem. Who can have a better religion than such people? Than such people. Impossible.

Outside the religion of Islam you will find this trait in no one. Within the religion of Islam, too, the people who have this trait are the righteous servants.

Yes. Now, Abraham, who gathered these traits in himself, remembering his Lord much within himself and in his heart, would sigh much with longing for Him. Abraham was among those who sigh much. Sighed much. Why does he sigh? Sometimes from being apart from Him, from love and affection, he would sigh. Sometimes because his wife, his friend, his father associated partners with Allah, because of people's rebellion against Allah, he would sigh. Sometimes because people are ungrateful, with Allah's compassion and mercy, people, even though they deny Allah, in the face of the blessings our Lord gives them, in the face of people's ingratitude, he would sigh much.

Their hearts would burn. Yes. What do you know, Hodja? We too live through some of these feelings. We too sigh much sometimes. Because all are Allah's creatures. You cannot intend oppression against Allah's creatures. No oppression, no intending it. So, as servants created by our Lord, we want all of us to be people each more beautiful than the other. If we were more beautiful than each other we would love each other much, be very merciful, very compassionate, and with our unity a strength we would form. Yes. We become a servant as our Lord wants. Therefore this world, a place for eating, drinking and pleasure, it is not.

That is only for animals. They eat, drink, mate and die. Even it still remembers its Lord. In this case, Allah Almighty, who gave them the beauty of eating, drinking, mating and living, to those animals, and is content with their traits and states, does it to make them serve people. Look, the animal eats, drinks, does not know it will die, be slaughtered. It does not know it will become meat for man, that he will eat it. It serves him; with its milk, its meat, even all its filth, by making fertiliser, it serves man. But that man cannot even think how that animal, that being he calls animal, serves him and becomes food, and to the Lord who created it for him how it does (?).

He cannot think. So within Allah's infinite mercy, man with his very simple and ignorant thoughts turns his back on his Lord and does not offer his thanks. How does Allah Almighty show in His verse how precious gratitude is? Never, He says. Do We diminish the wealth of one who thanks Allah, He says. That is, if you give thanks for what I gave you, He says, I will increase it further, He says. I will increase it further. As He gave to Abraham. Yes.

So Abraham, who gathered these traits in himself, remembering his Lord much within himself and in his heart, would sigh much with longing for Him. Wiping the universe besides Him from his eyes, gathering all beings in his Lord, he knows that the universe exists through Him. He gives his heart to no one but Him. He was a prophet who surrendered himself to his Lord. In this respect Allah, to him, Allah took him as a friend. He called him 'My Khalil'. My Khalil.

Yes.