An-Nisa 72: There are some among you who lag behind (with regard to fighting). If a calamity befalls you, they say; “Allah has blessed me, for I was not with them.”

Verse 72 of Surah An-Nisa: Among you there are some who are very slow about jihad. Why are they slow?

Among you there are some who are very slow about jihad. Why are they slow? Let us try to explain this to you. A person has faith, has faith, yes.

Now in this case, why do people hold back during that war? Because faith has not reached perfection. If only he could know that station of martyrdom, if he could know that for the safety of the homeland and the nation he would choose to sacrifice his life, if he could know he will be received smiling in Allah's presence and will stay alive; what does our Lord say about the martyrs? They are provided for from where you do not know, He says. Do not call them dead, He says. Do not call them dead.

So when faith does not reach this degree, fear seizes a person, and he starts to hold back. Yes, if a calamity befalls you, he says: Allah was gracious to me, so I was not with them. Yes, he does not say: I have stayed far from my Lord's mercy, he does not say that. Allah (?) to me. Because the nafs always makes a person seem right. The nafs. Among the Muslims there are such people that, when they are commanded to prepare for jihad, they make up excuses not to go to jihad. Because they love their lives and their property so much, they do not want to go to war. What does this mean? It shows that their faith is weak.

He too is a Muslim, but his faith is weak. They do not know that, as for going to war, with the defeat of their own state neither property will remain in their hands nor dignity. Yes.

I put it like this. I am at this age. If there were a war today, if there were a war and your state called me to war too, and even if it did not call me, if it had fallen into a wronged state, if the state came to need men, I would go myself as a volunteer. As a volunteer. I would go as a volunteer. Khalid ibn al-Walid was never defeated in his life.

Even while he was a polytheist he was never defeated. He is called Sayfullah. The Sword of Allah. And while dying he says to himself, he meets death on his feet: poor Khalid, who could not become a martyr, he says. Poor Khalid, who could not become a martyr. He girds on his swords, his sword, puts on his armour, meets death on his feet. Now, for the safety of the homeland and the nation, for the survival of Allah's religion, Allah Almighty commands war this much. The command is due, the right is due, and going to it is due. Our mothers and fathers of old, when they sent their sons to the army, would say: my son, never desert from military service; if you desert, you have no mother and father.

Yes, that is how much importance was given to the army, to military service. To the indivisibility of the homeland, the unity and togetherness of the nation, the honour of the religion of Islam, its survival until the Day of Judgment, to the burden in the hopes of the Muslims who took it upon themselves, they gave value.

They do not know that, with going to war, with the defeat of their own state neither property will remain in their hands nor dignity. Moreover, just as it is not known where and when death will come to a person, Allah Almighty says in the verses we went through: If death is to touch you, to the place where you will die you would walk there yourselves, He says. Yes. If your lifespan is over, you go to the place where you will die on your own feet, you go walking. If your time has come, if you fear death this much. If you are not going to die, not going to die, you will not die anyway. I am an aircraft technician.

We crashed two or three times; if Allah does not take you, you do not die; we crashed, so just because we crashed, should we never fly again, that is, not go, not go to duty, should we leave our duty? sir. We will see whatever is in our destiny; now we will go on hajj, Allah willing, if our name is drawn we will go, and now if the plane crashes, it means our lifespan is like that. There we go on our own feet. War is like this too. For example, when I board a plane, is it bound to crash on me, (?) plane? We go and we come back, for example. War is like that too. You go, you come back. (?). Your death too will be honourable.

Not everyone can easily (?) that honour. Because you become a martyr. Yes.

With the defeat of their own state, neither property will remain in their home, nor dignity. Moreover, just as it is not known where and when death will come to a person, Allah Almighty says in the verses we went through: If death is to touch you, to the place where you will die you would walk yourselves. O man! Death is a mount we cannot escape. Yes, everyone will drink this sherbet of death. Every soul will taste death, and in the end your return is to Me, says Allah Almighty. You return to Me. Yes. A day will come when we mount this mount. This is unavoidable. Since we cannot take anything from this world, by taking lightly Allah's command concerning jihad, turning our backs on Allah in the face of love of life and property, within the short time we will benefit from the world, in the end with our death, on the day we give account in Allah's presence, we will have wronged ourselves.

Or, He says, do you own a single atom of your world? When I was young I used to say: these men have horses, they have cars, they have (?), they have this, they have that. I was young then, of course. (?) would stay in my mind when I was young, too. Sir, (?) it was not so. Or do you own an atom in the world? Who is the owner? The one who created it. The Creator is its owner. We (?) the trusts that the Creator has given us. So, or do you own an atom in the world? If that were so, He says, you would meet your own needs. We would not give you even as much as an atom of a seed, He says. He speaks the truth. So if all of it is Allah's grace and generosity, if all of it is from Allah, and if we cannot take anything from the world to the hereafter, all we will take is, regarding our Lord's command, our rewards and sins for obeying or not obeying it.

That is what will go. So we will make this load of reward greater than the load of sin, so that we, when giving account before our Lord, when giving account in His presence, can give account with ease. Yes, if we go outside this, we will have wronged our own selves. That is, just as people go to prison when they (?), there too we will go to prison, that is.

O man. Death is a mount we cannot escape. A day will come when we mount this mount. Since we cannot take anything from this world, taking lightly Allah's command on jihad, turning our backs on Allah in the face of love of life and property, within the short time we will benefit in the world, in the end with our death, on the day we give account in Allah's presence, we will have wronged ourselves, we say. Yes. When a misfortune touches those who strive, who fight in the way of Allah, when a misfortune touches those who strive and fight in Allah's way, those people say: Allah was gracious to me, so I did not go.

Allah was not gracious to you. Allah was gracious to you, and did He wrong the other one? When Allah Almighty sent people to this earth, believe this with certainty: He does not interfere with anyone's destiny even by an atom. Even by an atom. This is what we call the partial will. For the decisions all people have made with their own will, reward and sin they receive.

But, but within our lifetime, should we never outside our destiny have strayed onto a path? Look, pay attention here.

I repeat. So, within our lifetime, outside our destiny, should we never have met with a misfortune? Should we never, sir, have met with an accident? So then, outside our destiny, within the span of our life, so that we can prove what kind of people we are, our Lord, outside our destiny, prevents harms that would come to us. So, you are protected by many unknown things. His verse. You are protected from many directions you do not know. This is that verse. Because we are human, we live, a calamity will befall us, or a car will hit us, or something will happen outside our destiny, but my life still has time left.

So that is protected too. Either someone comes and takes me away, or someone, my foot catches, I fall, and it passes by there. That is, our Lord protects us. What kind of people we are, until the end of our life, within this life of ours, He protects us from calamities that would befall us outside our destiny. He willed that. Yes.

When a misfortune touches those who strive and fight in the way of Allah, those who hold back from going to war say: Allah was gracious to me, so I was not with them; Allah (?) every person's intention. For this reason Allah creates events so that a person is held as a witness to himself. So that he is a witness to himself. He gave people characters according to their desires and wishes, according to their aims. When the time comes for those characters, desire and wish are given to the person. So Allah is only ever in a state of creating. In a state of creating.

Now again some things come to my mind. It feels heavy, but what can we do? We learn better. The Messenger of Allah, when going out somewhere, hears a voice. Stop, O Muhammad, my Lord is performing salat, it says.

At the Mi'raj, when he meets Allah Almighty: My beloved, He says. Did you not tell the words you heard? To my Lord, he says, everything is (?). Everything is (?). He says, I am free from performing salat, that is, from praying. I have no need to pray. My salat here is being constantly on duty. So neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Allah. He is constantly on duty toward His creatures. That is the meaning of His performing salat. In response to the desires and wishes of all people, animals, the living beings He created, His providing their sustenance, and in response to people's desires and wishes His creating causes; by creating those causes, people by their own deeds doing good and sin; people, within their own will, being unable to blame Allah Almighty in any way; that Allah has no ruling over those people and that people, by their own deeds, receive reward and sin, He shows us.

Otherwise, if my Lord removed my will from me and Himself used my will over me, since He is the Creator, then my strength would not suffice against Him. He would have made me do it, He would have made me commit that sin, He would have killed that man through me, and then (?) of me? So Allah Almighty never interferes in this. Within our destiny, within our desire and wish, as a result of the covenant we gave our Lord, what kind of people we are: in our partial will, with those characters coming to us, when we put them into action with our desires and wishes, we receive reward and sin. Yes. Deeds depend on intentions, after all; our Lord knows our intentions best.

Those who strive submitting to Allah's command, even if they meet with misfortune, Allah gives them great rewards in His presence. Even if they meet with misfortune. Because he fulfilled his Lord's command. That is not a misfortune. Allah Almighty says exactly this. When you engage in war, Allah first separates out among them those who love their Lord, He says. He takes them. He separates out those who love their Lord. He takes them. That is, the martyrs. And if we pay attention, at the start of a war the Muslims seem as if (?). Then they pull themselves together. After that, may Allah grant safety to the other side.

About this too, keep your feet firm, says Allah Almighty. That is, stand firmly on the ground. That is, do not turn back. That is, (?), sir, never flee. With many of His verses He shows us such meanings in the best way, as you say, in the best way He shows the paths. Yes. So even if he dies, in Allah's presence it is not a misfortune. After all, we will all die and leave this world. Three days earlier, three days later; he went to his place. Now an event in Ya-Sin comes to my mind. Allah Almighty tells it as a story. To the people of that town, He says, while those men were explaining the truth, from the other side, He says, a man came running from the far end of the city: Believe, he says, the one who explains the truth to you without asking any fee from you, believe him, he says; are you too one of them, they say, and stone him to death.

While still falling to the ground, he says: I have won, I have won, I have won. What did he win? While still falling to the ground, he becomes a martyr for Allah. When the soul reaches the throat, Allah Almighty shows him the hereafter, doesn't He; at that place He shows, when He says, are you closer to him or am I closer, before his soul leaves, as he falls to the ground, you have won, He says. And when, with the rank of martyrdom, He shows him the paradises, Allah's promise being true, He says, you have won this. Yes.

And the person who does not go to jihad, who says Allah was gracious to me, so I was not with them, what will you do on that Day of Reckoning, having gone against Allah's command, we say. Indeed. Allah's command was to go to war, to strive. You held back and went on. Because a misfortune touched him, you said: Allah was gracious to me. You deceived yourself according to your own nafs. What will Allah Almighty do to you? In the Divine Presence: Did I tell you that? Sit in your place. Sir, was it I who was gracious to you, He will say? The others are My servants too; were they not My servants and only you My servant? He will say.

He will show him the truth there. That is why we must hold on to Allah's verses very well. That is what faith is. Faith is understanding Allah's verses well and reinforcing the verses. Now, if we decide according to one verse, we fall into wrong decisions. Like what? Now, let us say a verse, according to our mind, showed the straight path, and we understood it a bit from the left. From the left. A second verse again shows the straight path; this time we understood it from the right. Now that contradicted this; the two contradicted each other. Yet both verses were right. If we had understood the verses correctly, all of them would have confirmed each other, not contradicted each other, not been apart.

And because we misunderstand some verses, we ascribe attributes to Allah; we do not grasp Him. For example, as if Allah Almighty puts whomever He wills into Hell and whomever He wills into Paradise. As if Allah Almighty, sir, takes away the light of the unbelievers. May Allah protect us. We came into the world all equal. Even in the (?) He says, We have divided even your world equally among you. Even your world. Well, now a question like this may come to mind. It came to my mind. It may come to yours too. Well, today people living in the desert heat, with the desert climate. On the other side greenery, like a (?) (?) how is this the climate of the land, that is, how is the earth the same, equal, when one says: look, Allah Almighty, to the people living in that beautiful place, with the underground resources or surface resources He gave them, and with the underground resources He gave to those living in the desert, has made their levels equal. Their incomes, their sources of income, their livelihoods, their materials, He has made equal.

That is, reflecting on all these verses not in one direction but in many directions, reinforcing the verses with each other, shows us Allah's perfectly straight path. Yes.