An-Nisa 68: And they would have been on a straight path.

What does He say now? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Ve le hedeynâhüm sırâten müstakîmâ. The straight path. Right? Of course, a straight path. They would have been on it. If they had kept to what was said. Otherwise Allah does not lead anyone to the straight path. I tell you this again. Allah Almighty — except for the prophets. Because the first created, those created within His command. Then those created from his people are different. Those created from their spirits are different. He does not lift anyone's will from them, grab them by the scruff of the neck and say, 'You, enter this path.' He sent the Quran as mercy to the worlds.

Mercy. Whoever abides by it enters the straight path himself. Partial will (?). Yes. He shows everyone the straight path. Of course. Allah Almighty shows everyone the straight path. Why was Satan given permission? Because those who, in (?) of their destiny, would do evil also had to be shown a way. There had to be one who shows the way. So Satan too was given permission (?). Satan. Yes.

Allah Almighty places His light in the heart of one who believes in His Being and submits.

Of course.

This — in Surah An-Nur or so — is the counterpart of the verse Allahu nûru's-semâvâti ve'l-arz.

When this person possesses this light of faith, with this faith on Allah's path, reforming his own nafs for Allah, he becomes a sincere servant of Allah. He joins the righteous. Now there are wrong renderings under the verses in the translations. But since we will correct them, we wrote the translations correctly. That is, we wrote their meanings correctly. Although the verses are wrong underneath, their meanings are correct. Because we said it had to be brought out quickly, urgently. Urgently. Where did this urgency (?)? Upon the Prophet saying, 'When will you start the work? Bring out this book quickly, people need it,' I could not work on the translation; I brought out the tafsir.

Therefore some verses of the tafsir went in wrong, as in the Quran — that is, as others had wrongly opened them. But what is explained is correct. What is explained is correct. What is explained? The way the verse is opened is correct. For example, now we are reading verse 68. What did it say? 'And We would guide them to a straight, right path,' it says. Allah Almighty does not lift anyone's partial will from them and lead that person to the straight path. So what is correct? 'And they too would have been on a straight path.' Now, this tafsir was written according to this anyway. That is, it was not written according to the wrong one.

And that there are some errors in these tafsirs is not important. Now we will correct those too. We will prepare another printing, inshallah. We are writing it according to what is correct. Look, we read the correct version: 'And they too would have been on a straight path.' It is already opened according to what is correct. What do we say? Allah Almighty places His light in the heart of one who submits to His Being. When this person possesses this light of faith, with this faith on Allah's path, for Allah, reforming his own nafs, he becomes a sincere servant of Allah and joins the righteous. Among the righteous.

Look, we do not say, 'Allah led this servant to the straight path.' That is the wrong version, but we open these according to what is correct. He becomes a person useful to people. Even if people do not love him, being held up as an example to many people, he makes them say that he is a trustworthy person. He also becomes an example to people on Allah's path. Like whom? Like the Prophet (peace be upon him). They used to call him Muhammad al-Amin. Even if they did not love him, they held him up as trustworthy. Yes, Islam has brought laws under which not an atom's weight of injustice will be done to people.

In Islam no one suffers even an atom's weight of injustice. If you live Islam — people who say 'I am a Muslim' yet recognize no right or law are the exception, those who say 'I am a Muslim' yet oppress another for their own nafs are the exception — the actions and attitudes of these do not bind Islam.

They do not bind the religion of Islam. They bind the person's own good deeds and sins. So if a person abides by Islam — just as Allah Almighty declares: retribution for retribution, eye for an eye, nose for a nose, ear for an ear, tooth for a tooth, He says.

Then no one can fail to respect anyone's rights and dues. The perfect Muslim, the perfect one — in a hadith, the Prophet says: 'If a Muslim is not safe from another Muslim's hand, loins and tongue, his faith has not reached perfection,' he says. Yes, so no Muslim has the authority to do injustice to any Muslim.

People, however, because of their own nafs, turn their backs on Allah's laws. A person whose nafs is not reformed, with love of the world, love of children, or through the temptation Satan gives him, showing the world as rosy, chasing after various desires, turning their backs on Allah's commands, deifying their own nafs, running after those feelings of the nafs — such people. Yes. In that case they turn their backs on Allah's laws. They both fear Allah and follow after people pleasing to their nafs. Who are these people? Two-legged devils, the ones we call Taghuts — those people. Tomorrow, (?) on the Day of Judgment, when these people say to Allah Almighty, 'These led us astray,' they will say exactly this: I am quoting a verse. These are all verses.

'We had no power over them.'

'We only recommended this to them.' 'And they followed us.' 'We are not responsible for what they did,' they will say. Why did he follow them? Allah too made His verses known to you. Why did you not follow Allah's verse, but went after that two-legged Taghut instead? Because their character was the same. Their mindset was the same. Their feelings of the nafs were the same.

Yes.

These, getting into impasses, turn their own lives into a (?) state. And in the hereafter they wrong themselves. Those who step outside Allah's command, who steer themselves by their own minds and act outside Allah's commands, fall into depression, stress and impasses. And then, with much stress, they fall prey to illnesses. And then they carry on their lives in a wretched state. Wretchedness grips them by the collar; they cannot find eternal peace. Peace is in Islam. 'But Hodja, I am of Islam too, a Muslim.' You did not do what Islam says. The person you call Islam is one who abides by Allah's commands, whose nafs has risen to tranquillity, whose doubt about the hereafter has ended, who has come to know his Lord's manifestations, who has attained the quality of a believer.

That is where peace lies.

And the other? In the other there is submission because of faith.

A person who is not a believer — even if he comes, at nafs-i mulhime, to the gate of miracles, even if he is a saint — his end is doubtful and he has doubts about Allah. A person who is not a believer, whose nafs has not risen to tranquillity, who has not come to know the manifestations — even if he says, 'I believe in the hereafter', if he says it, the supposition in him will not let go of him. He speaks from his faith, if he says, 'To me there is no supposition,' (?).

(?)

Why do I say this so surely? Because we have passed through those paths. 'But Hodja, can everyone be you?' Those paths have no other, no alternative.

That those paths have no other, no alternative — verse 27 of Surah Al-Fajr tells us. O tranquil soul! 'Your Lord pleased with you and you pleased with your Lord, enter among My servants, enter My paradise' — the verse that says this (?) us. So, unless one becomes tranquil, no one can fully, without doubt, believe in the hereafter. But to take this as a deficiency in his faith, or him as a person pushed outside Islam — that is not possible. That is, he is of Islam, he is a believer. You have said 'believer'. He is of Islam, he is a Muslim. Of course he will have contradictions. Because it is in an unseen realm.

But once he attains the quality of a believer, that doubt disappears. And if he goes further in from there, that is, at nafs-i radiya — as we said a moment ago about Allah Almighty's verse: 'The angels and the scholars bear witness to Allah's existence,' it says. I say it again: 'The angels and the scholars bear witness to Allah's existence,' it says. It does not say, 'The angels and the people of faith, the Muslims, bear witness to Allah's existence.' Look, pay attention. Allah's word is upon (?). The angels and the scholars. Who are the scholars? The heirs of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Who are these heirs? 'The (?) of my ummah are like (?) prophets' — the people of whom he said this. That is, people whom Allah Almighty Himself raised — that prophet by revelation, these by inspiration.

'These are witnesses to My existence,' He says.

And I say that one of those witnesses is me. yes Yes, if I were not one of those witnesses, I could not open these verses so properly.

Allah Almighty, addressing people through His verses: 'O people, if you had obeyed Allah and His Messenger, We would have guided you to a straight path.' Here: 'We would have guided.' (?), that would have been guided. That is, it would go. You would enter a straight path. You too would enter a straight path. Yes. That is, without suffering any oppression or hardship, because of your submission to My Being I would place peace in your hearts and make you attain My mercy in the hereafter,' He declares. So, 'I would place peace in your hearts,' He says. What does He say? In the Light verse too He says of them: neither of the east nor of the west does the shadow fall. To the people in whose hearts We put Our light — how does Allah Almighty put that light? Through worship of Him, through striving for Him, through abiding by Allah's verses.

Yes.