An-Nisa 32: Do not envy the things (you don’t have or) others have better than yours made by Allah (by your fate which is determined by your covenant with Allah). Men have a gain from what they earn, and women have a gain from what they earn. Desire from Allah Allah’s blessings. Indeed, Allah is knowledgeable of everything.

We come to Surah An-Nisa, verse 32.

Do not long with yearning for the things by which Allah has made some of you superior to others, what others have and you do not.

Here it is: the things by which Allah has made some of you superior to others. I mean, my brother has a car. I don't. I want it with yearning in my heart.

How can he be superior to me? How can he have a car above me? How can he have a house above me? I mean envying, begrudging him, or coveting what he has, coveting worldly goods. These are not good things. Submitting to Allah's provision over people. We will take precautions and leave the decree to Allah.

Do not long with yearning for what others have and you do not. Men have a share of what they earn. Women too have a share of what they earn. Ask Allah for His grace. Surely Allah knows everything. Now, as I said a moment ago, a man cannot provide for his home. His family and children are, well, in hardship. His wife can work. But if the man can provide for his home, his wife working, going somewhere else, well, her earning is unlawful. Unlawful.

The other day I was in Ankara. Quite recently. I came here on Wednesday. One day before coming here. Tuesday. I am driving from Etimesgut toward Ulus. Morning. Cars behind me.

You have to check right, left and behind you from the car. If you don't want to have an accident.

In one of the cars behind me there is a woman. The man keeps making advances at the woman. And the woman goes along with it. He has picked this woman up. This woman is going to work. If she were his wife he would not make advances at her.

Today, to prevent habits like these, a woman working is unlawful. The woman is a victim too. What can she do? She got into the car and is going. This is how a person ends up, in honor, chastity and dignity.

People's hearts burn, but, my heart burns, but there is nothing I can do.

Now, so, the man knows his wife goes to work. Of course she goes to work. Well, what will come of the money she earns then? What if you earn it?

If she is in hardship, if she is in hardship, she will again come and go guarding her chastity. If she goes guarding her chastity, Allah permits that side of it. Well, not with her eye on (?) like that. Allah will be her helper. Even if she got out of that car and was stuck on that road, Allah would surely send someone kind to her. So many honorable people work to earn their living. So in what a man and a woman earn by working, each has their own share. I mean, the man cannot say, I am the manager over the woman's money, give it to me and I will spend it. The man cannot take the money the woman earned from her hand, become the owner of property himself, and then kick her out, leave her ruined and abandoned, and go.

That is why Allah Almighty has set His justice. The woman for herself from what she earns, and the man for himself from what he earns. If they are going to buy a house, they will buy it together. If they are going to buy a car, they will buy it together. Because both of them work. Today the money women work for and bring home, the husband takes from her hand, puts the property in his own name, and in the end leaves that woman wronged and abandoned. Yes, so Allah Almighty prevents habits like these. What does He say? The woman has a share of what she earns, and the man has a share of what he earns.

In this situation, if we want even more justice, if we want even more justice, when we come home, whether woman or man, the man needs to help the woman. If he himself works outside, and his wife works outside too, his wife comes, cooks at home, looks after the children. Being tired all day is not enough. On top of that, the housework (?).

People with a conscience help their wives. Even if he does not know how to cook, he sets the table. If he does not know how to set the table, he looks after the child. Because children are named after the father.

In this situation life is shared, and in common, in a beautiful peace, people carry on their lives. But if they act selfishly, there is no peace left in the family.

Coveting the property and possessions, the children and families Allah Almighty has given people, do not say with yearning, if only I had children, or property and possessions. Property and possessions, children and families may not be good for you. Children and family, property and possessions may not be good for us. At one point in time, one of the neighbors, this is old. Around the sixty-fives. The sixty-threes (?). He bought a '57 model car. A Chevrolet. A '57 model. A very beautiful car. They are happy. A week later he has an accident. And he himself (?) inside that car. I never forget him. That joy is drowned in disappointment.

So this is property that is good, or not good. So do not (?) someone else's property, possessions, children and family. People may have done themselves harm without knowing. Allah, according to His verse, We do not load on people's backs a burden of property, possessions and children they cannot carry, distributes to people in the best way. If it is a burden you cannot carry within your destiny, that property is a burden; it will not bring you good. That is why, in this respect too, you say do not covet; take your precautions and leave the decree to Allah, and Allah gives you the best for you.

Within the covenants people gave Allah, Allah knows in their (?) what they will (?), what will be good for them, and gives to them accordingly.

Otherwise, if He had given a person something he could not carry, a fault would be ascribed to Allah. If my deeds depend on my intention, if my wish has become my destiny, if He had loaded on me a burden outside that wish of mine, I could not carry it; I would either fall into sin, or, let me say, prove myself in some other way; in this way a fault would be ascribed to Allah. So within my wish, within the circle of the burden I can carry, Allah Almighty gives me children, family, property, possessions, calamity. Within that frame, what my strength suffices for, what I can carry; what my strength would not suffice for He does not load anyway. What my strength would not suffice for falls outside that circle.

Then a fault would be ascribed to Allah Almighty. Within that strength He gives us what is best. That is why we say: be content with what comes from Allah. Do not covet someone else's property, possessions, children and family. Yes.

In this respect no person will be able to question Allah. Why? Because Allah Almighty did not load on his back a burden he could not carry. (?), when all events are shown to him, when it is shown to him why the property and possessions or the child he desired was not given to him, he will have no word to say against Allah Almighty.

The property or possessions people unknowingly desired within their destinies might perhaps force people to do evil in this world, and people, unable to master themselves, will do evil.

Now take a person who earns a normal living.

He lives in a humble house. Humble. Of the six or seven hundred lira monthly pay he gets, he gives two hundred, two hundred fifty lira as rent. With three hundred, three hundred fifty, four hundred lira he makes his living. Wouldn't this person covet a car? Wouldn't this person, well, covet having a house of his own? Wouldn't this person covet a yacht, well, needing to go to a summer house and rest? He would. Some spend their lives like this. And some come to own certain things. Now, to that man who spends his life like this, I mean that man who gets by on a small monthly pay and passes to the hereafter, if we gave property and possessions and showed him money too, who knows what evils he would commit.

Who knows what he would do. So this is Allah's mercy to him. He came like that and went like that. The world was a temporary inn for travelers. He finished this journey. He won his eternal home in the realm of the hereafter. He did not give more. Had He given, he would have done evil. Or, not on property and possessions, but going around here and there, (?) and so on, he would have satisfied his own nafs as much as he could. The other way, with the hardship of making a living at the head of his family, well, saying Allah, he passed and went. How beautiful. Then do not covet anyone's property and possessions.

Whatever covenants we made with Allah Almighty, within that covenant our Lord creates events in a way that does not load on our backs what we cannot carry, through which we prove ourselves to ourselves, to those around us and to Allah Almighty. And by carrying out those actual deeds we prove what kind of person we are.

Yes.

Yes.

And then they will say to Allah Almighty: if You had not given me this property, I would not have committed these sins. I mean, if He had given that property, something outside that destiny. Moreover, apart from these events, the people Allah Almighty tests with this property He created for people's living, and with which He created people, if they love this property Allah created and push Allah to second place and live with love of material things, these people unknowingly associate partners with Allah, and in situations like these they fall into hidden shirk. That person,

the person who says Allah, when he sees money, with the whims of his nafs, this time instead of saying Allah will say yallah, and forgetting that Allah gave this property, within his property he will indulge in pleasure, saying my property. He will increase his love for property beyond his love for Allah Almighty, and these will fall into shirk.

Most of the love belongs to Allah. Because the one worthy of love is Allah. Most of the fear too belongs to Allah. Because the one most worthy of fear is again Allah. What does Allah Almighty say in His verse? If there is anyone to be loved, the one most worthy of love is Me. If there is anyone to be feared, He says, the one most worthy of fear is also Me, He says.

Men surely have a share of what they earn. Women too have a share for themselves of what they earn. Every person wants to get something in return for what he earns, to own what he likes, to use them. The woman or man who has earned and come to a state of owning the property they wish to buy, let them wish to buy that property asking Allah for what is good. There is property. There is property that is not good for a person. For example, a person wishes for a mount, and when he comes to be able to buy this mount, he at once runs and buys a mount to own it. He does not know that when he buys this mount, after a while or right away, he will have an accident.

He will lose either his property or his life. If this person knew he would have this accident, would he feel this desire and wish for this mount before buying it?

The (?) person, when he wants property and possessions, asking Allah for what is good, moreover, to show off and boast to people, will not own property. Behavior like this lowers people's rank in Allah's sight, and people become sinners. Property and possessions, children and family. If a person boasts and is proud toward people, Allah, the Owner of all beings, is the Creator of that person's property and possessions, children and family that he boasts of. Instead of thanking Allah for what he has, his forgetting Allah, his boasting and being proud of what Allah Almighty created, pushing Allah aside, turning a deaf ear, longing for what Allah created more than for Allah, loving them: this behavior of theirs too makes people sinners.

In this respect, whatever you ask of Allah and whatever you come to own, Allah, remembering Allah, when taking what He created from Him, both asking for what is good and thanking Allah, ask while observing Allah's grace and pleasure, so that what is given to you serves you in the world and also, as you spend them in Allah's way, raising your rank in Allah's sight, you attain Allah's mercy. Allah is the One who knows everything fully, because He is the Creator. What He created finds life from His being. If Allah did not encompass what He created and know their states, what He created would be exposed to oppression, coincidences would arise and the order of the universe would break down.

In this respect Allah is aware of what He created and knows their states. Yes.