An-Nisa 90: Except for those who seek shelter in a group that you have an agreement with and those who come to you with a pressed heart because they don’t want to fight you or their own groups. If Allah had desired, Allah would have given them power over you and they would fight against you. So, if they leave you alone and retreat and if they don’t fight against you and offer peace, in this case, Allah has not given you the permission to enter a way against them.

Surah An-Nisa, verse 90: Except those who take refuge with a people with whom you have a treaty, or those who, not wanting to fight either you or their own people, come to you with heavy hearts — they are excepted. Let me read this verse once more — how the Ottoman Empire — the one they call barbaric — how the Ottoman Empire applied this verse, applied this verse. Now we read it again. Except — with whom you have a treaty — they have a treaty. Those who take refuge with a people, take refuge with a people. Not a Muslim one, but let's say they took refuge with a non-Muslim people, took refuge with a non-Muslim people — except those with whom you have a treaty, non-Muslim let's say, those who take refuge with a people you have a treaty with or those who, not wanting to fight either you or their own people, come to you with heavy hearts — they are excepted.

For example, a wronged state — even if it is not Muslim. Even if not Muslim.

When another state torments it — let's say state A is Christian, and state B is Christian too. But state A torments state B because B is weak. So state B goes and asks the Ottomans for help. This man is tormenting us like this, it says. He doesn't give us the right to live, it says. Then the Ottomans carry out Allah's law. According to this verse.

They grant those people life. Today the Muslims living in Bosnia and here and there still remember the Ottomans fondly. Fondly. Yes, those who come to you are excepted. Had Allah willed, He would have set them upon you. True, He would have set them upon you and they would have fought you. So, since Allah Almighty, according to each person's wishes and deeds, wrote their own desires as destiny, everyone will live their own destiny. But had our Lord willed, of course He would have set those people upon us and ruined us. So if they leave you, withdraw aside and do not fight you, and offer you peace, then Allah has not given you the right to take a way against them.

That is, these people came; you fought (?), (?), and after you defeated them, or after they took refuge with you, they offer a treaty, and you say, no, I won't accept this treaty, I will oppress you — Allah has not given us this right. What does He say here? He has not given you the right to take a way against them, He says. Why does He say it? What does He say now? Yes: so if they leave you, withdraw aside and do not fight you, and offer you peace, then Allah has not given you the right to take a way against them, He says. Look, even if they are non-Muslims. Look at Allah's greatness. Because on earth His mercy is for everyone, because He treats everyone equally, see how He protects them too? No — you are a Muslim; look, they had made war on you, declared war on you. But now they offer peace; against them, He says, Allah grants you no right to oppress them, He says.

So: justice and wisdom, He says — justice, Allah's law, and wisdom. Yes, but the kafir does not recognise this. When the kafir wins, he uses you like a servant, crushes you and ruins you.

Those who take refuge with a people that has a treaty with the Muslims — do not touch those who take refuge. Because by taking refuge with a people that has a treaty with you, their responsibility belongs to the people who have a treaty with you, so do not touch them.

There are responsibilities. (?) states A and B have an agreement. A and B. Then people C comes and takes refuge with state A. If it has taken refuge, since states B and A have a treaty, those who take refuge with it are seen as (?); you cannot attack them. Yes. Or those who, not wanting to fight either you or their own people, with heavy hearts come to you — they are excepted. That is, they don't want to, don't want to. They don't want to be (?). But on the other side there is oppression. Unable to bear that oppression, he came to you unwillingly, saying protect me, but their (?) are uneasy. Well.

These are people who, as one party, do not want to fight either side. They are not to be touched, and (?).

Surely, had Allah willed, He would have set them upon us and they would have fought you, He says. They would have fought us.

All people are servants created by Allah.

Even if the people Allah created disobey Him, even if they rebel, their punishment is between Allah and them. That is, Allah Almighty never lets a Muslim depart from justice. Yes. Every person, for the deeds he has done, is responsible to Allah Almighty. Every person is himself responsible. So what does He say in the verse? Fe men ya'mel miskâle zerratin hayran yerah — (?), I will record his good, He says. Fe men ya'mel miskâle zerratin şerran yerah — (?), I will record his evil, He says. So every person is responsible to Allah Almighty for the deeds he has done. So if you act within Allah's command, in a way our Lord does not want, if you depart from justice in a way Islam does not want, then of course Allah Almighty, for the actions you have done, will surely record those evils of yours.

Yes.

Allah Almighty lets none of His servants oppress any other. As I said a moment ago, His mercy (?) is abundant. Whether non-Muslim, whether (?). Whether (?), a Magian of fire, whatever they may be. On earth His mercy is for everyone. Because He will judge among them with justice, feed them and give them drink, and protect them until a time He has spoken of. And finally, per the verse saying your return is to Me, the decree of the Truth (?), those souls will taste death and pass on to the hereafter. Then the destinies of people in worldly life, their various lives, will come to an end. And when people have proved what kind of people they are and pass on to the hereafter, on that day of reckoning, on the Day of Resurrection, in the Great Court, the absolute Judge, Allah Almighty, who has no equal or partner, will give His verdict there. He does not allow anyone on earth to treat anyone unjustly.

If a person, (?), as he himself sees fit behaves and does not listen to Allah's verses, the sins for the deeds he has done will be recorded each time. He will be questioned about them in the hereafter, even if he is a Muslim.

Within the lifetime He has given them, He protects them; and the person, under this mercy, lives his own nature and holds himself witness before Allah.

No one has the right to oppress anyone. No one has the right to oppress anyone. If anyone had had it, that one person, the Prophet (peace be upon him), would have had it — because he had come as a mercy to the worlds. But he too lived side by side with the Jews. No Jew had a complaint against him.

Now a narration about the Prophet comes to my mind.

Before the Prophet (peace be upon him) passed on to the hereafter, he first gathers the people. Whoever, he says, has a right over me, let him take it, he says.

Whoever has a right over me, let him take it.

Not a sound from anyone.

A Jew steps forward.

I have a right over you, he says. Come here then, he says.

Tell me what right you have over me. (?) you had me beaten with so many strokes, he says. Yes.

You had deserved it for that offence. And we had those strokes given to you with justice, he says. Even though he says so, I do not forgive you my right, he says. Well then, if you have a right, what must I do for you to forgive it, he says. You will bare your back, and I will strike you as many times as you had me struck, he says. Fine, he says, and bares his back; at once the Jew kisses the seal of prophethood on the back of the Prophet (peace be upon him). He says: O Messenger of Allah, only to kiss this seal of yours did I resort to this. On the Day of Resurrection, be my witness and intercede for me, he says.

And he says: I have accepted you into my community. Yes, in Islam no one has the right to oppress anyone.

No one — no one has the right to oppress anyone. Allah sends His laws so that people may find life — His laws. Sadly, man chases what pleases his nafs, what lacks Allah's approval, and takes his place beside the enemies of Allah. (?) Allah Almighty in His verse: aduvvallâhi ve aduvvekum. That verse. What is this? They have explained it wrongly, you know. What do they say? Your enemies and enemy to Allah. That is: Allah — your enemies and Allah's enemy, the one who is an enemy — as if Allah were an enemy. In the verse. Allah is no one's enemy. We correct it: as your enemies and enemies to Allah.

Now, an enemy to Allah is one thing; Allah's being an enemy is another. The words are misunderstood here.

Enemy to Allah: today non-Muslims, by associating partners with Allah, well, (?), are showing enmity toward Allah.

When it says enemy to Allah, how is people's enmity toward Allah Almighty shown? By going against our Lord's command. That is, by living outside the religion of Islam. Now, when we say going against Allah's command, this too divides into parts. Like what? Today Muslims, too, go against Allah's command. For example, He says don't drink alcohol; he drinks. He says don't gamble; he does. He says don't commit adultery; he does. He says don't take interest; he takes it. He says pray; he doesn't. He says fast; he doesn't. But he, with that light of faith, with the sins and good deeds he has done, will tomorrow give account before Allah Almighty.

And he will go where he deserves, and in the end he will still enter Paradise. He will enter Paradise.

The other, however, the other, because he is hostile to Allah Almighty, has no light of faith in him. He has turned his back on Allah's Messenger and on the Book Allah sent. Even if he knows Allah as Allah, he does not fully know Him as Islam does, and he ascribes partners to Allah. He says Allah is three; they say we are the sons of Allah, we are those close to Allah, the punishment will not touch us for more than three days, they say. So they, by their own reasoning, making gods of their own nafs, speak, and because they are hostile to Allah, they give fatwas where their own nafs makes it look good to them.

From this, (?) what is enemy to Allah? Yes. Allah, though, is no one's enemy. Know this well. Yes. So Allah sends His laws so that people may find life. Sadly, man chases what pleases his nafs, what lacks Allah's approval, and takes his place beside the enemies of Allah. Where the strong crush the weak, with a passion to be head over people, with nafs-driven actions, to bring people under his command and rule them, and to have himself talked of among people as somebody, he turns his back on Allah's laws. Despite this, while they are in the material world, Allah still treats them with His mercy and provides every kind of sustenance for them within their destinies. These people's way of thinking, their way of thinking is like Korah, Korah.

He had more treasure than the treasuries of Egypt. His keys — (?) seven people, it says; the keys of the treasury, (?) forty people could barely carry, it says. Once a week he would appear before his people, gather the Jews and boast to them. I earned this through my own intelligence, he would say. And the Jews would envy Korah: if only we were like Korah, they would say. All that I'm saying is from the verses. And finally Allah Almighty sank him into the ground. Again one day Korah puts on his most splendid (?), gathers his people, and as he stands before them, Allah Almighty sinks him, together with his palace, into the ground.

The Jews who see this say: how good that we were not in Korah's place, they say. Yes, in wealth and property, everything is Allah's; do not be deceived by the world's fleeting, rose-tinted looking, splendid life. Yes, all this is passing. Not this world — even if there were another world like it, on the Day of Resurrection, when we see that punishment, Allah Almighty says in His verse, you would want to give it as ransom to Allah to be saved. So, not this world, even if it were a whole world — the heavens and the earth and what is between the two.

Yes, according to the verse (?).

everything created, from the atom to the globe, if it was created by our Lord and He is its owner, all souls will taste death, and in the end the inheritance between the heavens and the earth will remain with Allah, He says. What Allah created will again remain with Allah. And so, if we do not own even an atom of this universe, if apart from our own being we do not own a single atom, if we do not even own this body made of flesh and bone — it is a trust, He says. Look, a trust. For how you used the trusts I gave you, I will call you to account, He says. If this too is a trust to us — that is, I am a driver, my car is a trust to me.

It is not mine. This flesh and bone are not mine either. But it was given to me as a trust: in this visible world, by eating and drinking, by responsibility, by the deeds I will do, and by keeping it up in this way, to prove what kind of person I am — if this trust was given to me for that, and if I am to be called to account for how I used it, if I am to be called to account, what do I own in this universe at all? So the only thing we own is the good and evil we have done; we will go with them. In the hereafter we will not even enter the body. And He says: when the souls are paired, that is, when soul and body come face to face, when you come before Me with a driver, We silence your mouths, bind your feet, and make your hands speak, He says.

So our body that testifies about us — when our soul says, why are you testifying against me, and it says, my Lord who makes me speak is making me speak, and after the testimony is done, you are returned to the One who first created you, and there tasting death a second time — what does that show us? That we cannot even own this body of ours, that it is a trust given to us, and that we are responsible even for it. Yes.

So Allah: do not attack those who want to fight both sides. Do not attack those who do not want to fight either side. Had Allah willed, He would have set them upon you, and they would have fought you. This is a mercy of Allah to people. So if they leave you, withdraw aside and do not fight you, if they offer peace, then Allah has not given you the right to take a way against them. That is, He has not given you the right to oppress them. If they make an offer of peace, do not go on fighting, and do not kill them when they do not want to fight. Keep their lives and property safe; Allah has not given you the right to oppress them. These laws show the value Islam gives to man and the freedom of his being human, and they show a sign of Allah Almighty's infinite mercy toward people.