An-Nisa 78: Wherever you are, the death will find you; even if you were in solid fortresses. Whenever goodness touches them, they say; “It is from Allah.” Whenever ill touches them, they say; “This is from you!” Say; “All of it is from Allah!” What is wrong with these people, why they hardly understand anything?

Surah An-Nisa, verse 78. Wherever you are, death will reach you.

Yes, we said the verses always confirm one another; they do not contradict. According to the verse that says: every soul shall taste death, and your return is to Me. Wherever we are — where we have proven ourselves, and according to the verse 'do you think you will die without proving what kind of person you are' — after we have proven what kind of person we are, we go on our own feet to the place where we will die. So according to the word that says every soul shall taste death and your return is to Me: wherever you are, death will reach you. Even if you left your world and went to the remotest corner of the universe, We would find you there too, says Allah Almighty.

So, since the verses always confirm one another: wherever you are, death will reach you. Even if you were in steep and strong fortresses. When some good touches them, they say 'this is from Allah', and when some evil befalls them, they say 'this is from you'. Say: yet all of it is from Allah. All of it is from Allah. Good and evil are from Allah.

What is wrong with these people that they just do not understand, it says. Allah Almighty. Yes, now our son Mehmet's question that he wrote to us has come up. They deny the verses, but Hodja, he says, this way of thinking leaves us astonished, he says. Yes, look, what is wrong with these people, it says. What is wrong with them? They just do not understand. With this many verses (?), even though Allah Almighty has made His Being known this much, even though He has placed this many miracles before people, even though He has created this many worlds, from the atom to the globe, that are beyond human power, even though — while these worlds revolve around one another, within a framework of knowledge, in this firmament, in this void, turning and turning — they neither come closer to nor move away from one another; even though, according to the verse 'Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth', as the illuminator of the heavens and the earth, He turns them without pillars, firm and sound, in a certain empty space, or in the heavens, around their own axes, creating them with knowledge and making them firm; even though He has proven to us that no power, no force can do what our Lord does — what is wrong with these people?

Has this nafs (?) this much? Is this nafs this full of pride and arrogance? Is this nafs this selfish, and while this nafs itself is so fond of a person's lust, of worldly interests, of enjoying life — this nafs — even though it is so attached to the pleasure of living, what is wrong with people who, toward the Lord who created it, are so full of hatred and resentment that they turn their backs on Allah? What does he have in his hand, what proof does he have, that relying on it he sets out to oppose Allah Almighty and to raise the flag of rebellion against Him? Well now, can you call these people people of reason?

So can you call non-Muslims people of reason?

(?) one of them, what does he say?

One who busies himself with a shadow is nothing, and one who busies himself with nothing is also nothing, he says. What was it? One who busies himself with a shadow is nothing, and one who busies himself with nothing is also nothing, he says. What a beautiful word. This world is a shadow of the Hereafter. If you busy yourself with this shadow, if you turn your back on the One who created it — even though you know it will one day be taken from your hand — if you keep your attachment to it, cut off your hope in Allah and turn your back on Him, if this world is a likeness, a shadow of the Hereafter, then if you busy yourself with this shadow, you will have busied yourself with nothing. In the end you too, as a nothing, in the world of the Hereafter, with your Lord lifting His mercy from you, of the eternal Hell life — yes, of the eternal life of Hell — you will become its firewood and logs.

So now, are these people of reason? 'Well, Hodja, they make so many inventions.' Allah created man talented, of course. They will make them. They will make them; they are talented. But this shows their talent. It shows with what talent my Lord created people. It shows with what fine equipment of reason He equipped them. But in their true being they are the very ones without reason. If man were truly reasonable, he would not buy, instead of the abode of eternal bliss, the abode of eternal punishment. Yes.

Allah Almighty says in a verse: every soul shall taste death. There is no escape from death. Surely every living being, just as it believes it was born, must also believe in its death. With this verse Allah Almighty says: wherever you are, death will catch you. There is no escape from it. Even if you were in steep and strong fortresses, even if one were seven layers below the earth, even if one found a way, left the world and went to the remotest corner of the universe.

Why? Death will catch you, says Allah Almighty. There is no being among those who have a nafs that will not be called to account before Allah Almighty on the Day of Judgement. Those who have a nafs. Animals too? Yes. When the animals are gathered, it will be known. When they take their rights from one another.

So, reminding us of death and declaring that there is no escape from it, He says: surely one day you will give account in the divine presence. What does it say? O man, come to your senses. You were not created in this world as an aimless being. Even though you are equipped with a (?) that science cannot and will not solve, even though nothing in this universe is by chance, even though nothing in this universe is by chance, even though, even though the One who created you, who created the worlds — that there is one Allah — your Lord who created you has proven it,

if you still live in the world as if you were aimless, if you deify your own nafs, follow in Satan's footsteps, and it strips you stark naked, if it leaves you deprived of that load of good deeds, remember that world of the Hereafter, it says. Every soul shall taste death, and your return, it says, is to Me, says Allah Almighty. I will settle your account, He says. So you look as if you are aimless in the world, but in fact you are under such a yoke.

If you knew that your every moment, your every second, is being recorded under a camera, how would you behave in this life, in this living? So do not forget that your every moment and every second is under observation. Do not forget that you are accountable for every second and will be called to account. So you say: every soul shall taste death, and your return is to Me. Accordingly, while living in this world, remembering the day you will be called to account in the presence of Allah Almighty, behave accordingly, He says. Yes, remembering the day you will be called to account, behave accordingly in this world.

O man, you are a traveller in this world. A traveller, that is, you are a guest in a temporary guesthouse. If, in that guesthouse, to the master of the house you do harm,

(?)

If you help the master of the house in that guesthouse, (?) This is what Allah Almighty says. Help the religion of Allah, He says. Help? Does Allah need help? No. Because He tests us with one another, Allah Almighty has already set up His law; He has made the program of these worlds until the Day of Judgement. Within this program Allah will keep (?) standing until the Day of Judgement. No one will have the power to put out His light. But if in this world, in that guesthouse, we do the things that master of the house says, surely it pleases that master of the house. So if in this guesthouse man observes the command of Allah Almighty, what does Allah Almighty say in the other world?

I will make our Prophet a witness over all the prophets, and you a witness over the other nations, He says. Just as the host would point to the guest in that guesthouse who behaved well, and show that well-behaved guest as an example to those who behaved badly, our Lord too will show us to the other nations as an example in this way: while they did this, you did this. While they feared Allah like this, you committed shamelessness without fearing Allah. Because you forgot the commands of Allah — that is, Me as the One who created, as your Creator — because you, sir, more than Me, deified your own nafs, today, He says, your place is eternal Hell.

Yes. That is why, in this world, do not be deceived by our appearing to be aimless. Do not be deceived. And realising that you are under observation at every moment, behave accordingly. Accordingly. Accordingly, while living in this world, remembering the day you will be called to account in the presence of Allah Almighty, behave accordingly, He says. Yes.

When some good touches you, you remember Allah. You say: this is from Allah. Yes. But when some evil touches you, you blame one another. 'You said this, so I did that.' 'If you hadn't said it, I wouldn't have done this.' And sometimes, even when good touches you: 'look, if I hadn't done it this way, it would have turned out like that.' You say: I did this.

You attribute it to yourself. Here Allah Almighty uses a beautiful language. When some good, some pleasant good touches you, it is from Allah. You remember Allah and say this is from Allah, it says. But when some evil touches you, you blame one another. You never call yourselves to account and look into your own fault. Every person is held in pledge for what he has done. This is the verse. Every person is held in pledge for what he has done. Just so, a pledge. Just so; you, a little, for what you yourself have done — instead of saying 'why did this happen like this' and blaming Ahmet, Mehmet, someone else, why do you not blame your own nafs? Why do you not say: why did this calamity come to me?

Yes.

Yet good and evil are created by Allah; they are created. Evils and goods, good and evil are from Allah, He says. Allah Almighty. That is among the conditions of faith.

Through the deeds they do according to their destiny, people receive reward and sin.

The meaning of evil here is the calamities Allah gives His servants as a test.

If people are patient with these calamities and say it is a test from Allah to me, if one says this is a test to me from my Lord, perhaps, attaining Allah's mercy, it may become an intercession for his sins. Or Allah Almighty (?) his sins, (?) (?). He says this is a test to me from my Lord, and is patient. Yes. In want and in plenty, in hardship and in ease, in persecution and in suffering, and also in a good life — in all of them one should seek Allah's mercy. In all of them. This is the hallmark of Islam: the Muslim's surrender to his Lord, and that Muslim, because of his surrender to Allah Almighty, finding peace by leaning his back on his Lord, by his trust in Him.

So peace is in Islam. Peace is in Islam. Yes.

What is wrong with these people? They just do not understand. Even though these people grasp the oneness of Allah and that all beings were created by their Lord, they still turn away from obeying Allah and His Messenger and deny the Book Allah sent as the truth and His Messenger. Still. Yes. We said Allah Almighty created people — our souls — in the world of lahut. There He made a covenant with us, with the address 'Am I not your Lord?' (Elestü bi-Rabbiküm). When He said: I am your Lord. People waiting for the Lord of their own imagination — even though they know that they were created by a deity — that is, they said yes to Allah Almighty.

That is, they themselves were created by a deity, created by a Lord. Because they have no prior state.

Their prior state (?).

Because Allah Almighty gives man great value, since He gave him of His spirit — of His spirit — you cannot deny this part. Since this is a deep subject, people — some people who have outward knowledge — because they cannot understand, cannot grasp these parts, set out to deny it; but it is not possible to deny it. They deny the verses. What does it say? We gave Adam of His spirit, We gave of Our spirit, it says. We breathed of Our spirit. Sir, We breathed Our spirit into Jesus, it says. We gave of Our spirit, it says. You cannot deny these. So (?) to whom He gave of His spirit, the Messenger of Allah — because all people were created from the spirit of the Messenger of Allah, we said, they were created indirectly as (?) of Allah Almighty.

These words weigh heavily on people. The aspects people cannot grasp. Yet their likening Allah Almighty to nothing, because of their faith, within their own knowledge and understanding, does them no harm either. Because they see (?) Allah, they try to see Him as transcendent in (?) way. But the verses, and people of knowledge, fear Allah much more than they think and fear, and love Allah much more than they love Him. Because they (?) some events. In this case, in some places people cannot understand, because of their faith they may (?). And we already welcome that (?) of theirs. Yes, but as the time comes, we try to explain it to people in this way.

What does it say? Even though these people grasp the oneness of Allah and that all beings were created by their Lord — that all beings were created by their Lord — they still turn away from obeying Allah and His Messenger and deny the Book Allah sent as the truth and His Messenger. So there they are. 'Yes, we were created by a Lord, but is it this one?' Why 'is it this one?' They said. Because since He gave a part of His spirit, He created him similar. Otherwise, as those people we call people of knowledge, those with outward knowledge, say that Allah resembles nothing, there too, in a way that resembles nothing, if it had been with a voice from the unseen, they would have prostrated.

They would have prostrated. So whether they prostrated or not — these people, carried away by their own grandeur, the whims of the nafs, their pride, their arrogance, their glory and fame — these people waited for the Lord of their own imagination. And so Allah Almighty says: they will not see their Lord. They will not see their Lord. Because there is no deity other than Allah for them to see as their Lord. Yes, in this case, what does it say: Allah and His Messenger — turning away from obeying them, the Book Allah sent as the truth and His Messenger (?), because they wait for the Lord of their own imagination. Yes, and since there is no such Lord, Allah Almighty says in His verse: if We wished, it says, from the sky, with angels, among the clouds, We would come down and make you prostrate, it says.

Look how beautifully it says it. But He gives us so much value that, since He created us of His spirit, He holds us as addressees of His Being. Without overruling each person's will — what we call partial will (irade-i cüziye) — Allah Almighty leaves every person free, with the decisions he makes by his own will, to know his Lord or not to know Him. In this case, a person's own desire, wish and aim is written for him as destiny. And those destinies are worked into people as characters.

Blaming the evils that befall them on the Messenger, they (?) him. Many peoples said to their prophets: because of you we were struck by this drought. Because of you we were exposed to these evils. Yes, and many of them they drove out of their towns.

Even though the Messenger explained the oneness and unity of Allah to people with the most beautiful of words, with verses, even though he invited them to the truth and persuaded them — what are they doing? They still do not listen. That is, they do not use their reason. So using reason is very important. He still does not use his reason. Even though the verses are explained, even though the truth is shown to them, even though Allah Almighty holds a light before them with verses, even though He gives them life, they are still in an outburst of the feelings of the nafs. Why? Because it does not please the nafs, that is why.

Yet the nafs is one thing, the truth is another. The truth. Beside the truth, the nafs accepts no word. The truth, however, wants to take a person's whole soul, body, nafs and life under protection, so as to guard them. And man is so ignorant that, before this word of truth, carried away by the feelings of the nafs, he turns his back on the truth. This is ignorance itself. Yes.

(?) (?) they do not listen. They do not listen. Let them not listen. Because earlier he made such a covenant and had his heart sealed just so. Hatemallahu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâveh ve lehum azâbun azîm. According to the verse: those who turn away from Allah, who because of their stubbornness drown the light of faith in the darkness of shirk. They do not understand. You cannot make them understand. If there were no good people, the bad would not be understood. If there were no bad people, the state of the good would not be understood. That is why everyone will live his own nature, will live his own destiny. The good and the bad, in this world.

In this world, where our Lord is unseen — that is, what we call the unseen — they will prove themselves.

These have had a veil drawn over their eyes against the Truth, have had their ears deafened to hearing the word of Truth, and have had their hearts sealed. So a painful and grievous punishment is for these. Yes. (?)