An-Nisa 14: Those who rebel and transgress the boundaries of Allah, and Allah’s Messenger; Allah will place them in a fire, for eternity. In there, there is also a humiliating punishment for them.

Yes, Surah An-Nisa, verse 14: whoever rebels against Allah and His Prophet and transgresses His limits, Allah will put him into a fire in which he will abide permanently, and for him there is a humiliating punishment.

We will explain it according to the occasion of the verses, and we will also explain it generally, generally, that is, by the meaning of the verse. The meaning of the verse: those who deny Allah and His Messenger. What does it say anyway? Whoever rebels against Allah and His Prophet. Where does this rebellion come from? According to the occasion of the verses: if he does not heed His command. In what way did we explain it? Allah has limits, laws He has set, there are sharia rulings. If they do not heed these, if he does not accept the shares in the divisions made, and by his own reasoning does not like Allah's law and says, let it be like this instead, these people, with seeds of hypocrisy in their hearts, are the ones who rebel against Allah and His Messenger.

In the first meaning, too, it is those who do not obey Allah and His Messenger. Those who do not heed His commands. And those who transgress the limits our Lord has set. What are the limits? The sharia ruling. Those who push the limit of the sharia ruling. And who transgress it. He will put him into a fire in which he will abide permanently, it says. Abide permanently. Here, that is, there is no notion of time. When it says permanently, what does it say here?

Fîhâ ebedâ ve lehe azâbun muhîn. Yes.

Here, without any notion of time and place, those who act against Allah and His Messenger, those who do not recognize Him, those who judge by their own reasoning, those who chase their own ideologies,

These are the ones who do not recognize the limits Allah has set over us, those who do not heed our Lord's command in the division, in inheritance, to distribute to people what remains of the deceased after his debts on this matter, who by their own reasoning find these lacking and say it ought to be like this, these are the ones. Those who carry the seed of hypocrisy in their hearts are the people who rebel against Allah and His Messenger, and their place is eternal Hell. And there is also a humiliating punishment for them. Now, the eternal fire and a humiliating punishment are mentioned side by side.

As I said a moment ago, people do not like Allah's just division among people. By their own reasoning these people say it should have been like this. Like the lion's share, he pulls everything to himself. Like the clog-maker's adze, he always carves toward himself. He gathers without asking whether it is halal or haram, and loads the right of the wronged onto his back as a burden. In this situation these people see themselves in the world as first-class people above others. And if he looks down on the others, then those he looked down on, beneath himself, when he sees them attain great ranks in the hereafter, before them they will be abased.

That is what it says: A humiliating punishment. There, before those people he despised, these people, when they fall into that punishment, when they see that the people they despised in the world have attained high stations in the hereafter, the punishment of the hereafter will seem light next to this humiliating punishment. Because their pride and arrogance, their selfish feelings, led them as far as rebelling against Allah; out of the pride and arrogance that went so far as rebelling against Allah, that man who saw himself as grand, when before the man he despised he sees himself (?) to punishment in a humiliating state, he will be crushed. That is the humiliating punishment.

It will torment him even more than the fire of Hell. Indeed our Lord uses these two side by side. He will put him into a fire in which he will abide permanently, and for him there is a humiliating punishment.

Man does not heed the sharia ruling Allah Almighty has set. With the distribution in the division of inheritance, or with the limits of the sharia ruling Allah Almighty has set, he is not content. And if he transgresses Allah's limits, that is, by his own judgment, the law Allah Almighty has made is lacking. And in this situation, are there not those who, recognizing no right or law, without observing Allah's right and law, divide the inheritance by their own reasoning? There are. I am a witness to many people. Fields left by their father as inheritance, 100 dönüm, 150 dönüm of hazelnut orchards.

No property for the daughters. The sons have talked it over. No property for the daughters. No right either. If the daughter goes and gets one (?) of hazelnuts from her elder brother or her brother, it is as a favor that she gets it. Is this what Allah commands? This is not only with hazelnuts. It is like this in many places too. In property, (?), in land. As if daughters were not beings created by Allah. As if daughters and women were not human beings Allah created with honor. As if they were toys in their hands. Yes.

We read this part again. Man does not heed the sharia ruling Allah Almighty has set. With the distribution in the division of inheritance, or with the limits of the sharia ruling Allah Almighty has set, he is not content. And if he transgresses Allah's limits, that person has wronged his own soul. If man covets worldly goods and does not consent to the ruling Allah has shown, gathers without asking whether it is halal or haram, clings to worldly life as if he would never die, oppresses those weaker and poorer than himself, and seizes their rights, these will attain a fire in which they abide permanently; may Allah Almighty protect us from such an end.

A question like this may come to our minds here.

These, Muslims also do this. Muslims. In this case, these Muslims, Will they also abide eternally? Didn't you say that Muslims will come out after suffering punishment for a time?

After their punishment is complete, their nafs will reach maturity and they will come out. We said that correctly. There is a point here. Can you know how people depart? What do people say? What matters is that last breath. Can you know how a person departs at that last breath? You may know me as a very good person. We may have given you very fine sermons on some occasions. And you may see us as an elevated person, that is, as a great scholar of religion, but can you know my last breath? You cannot. His intention depends on his deeds, his deeds on his intention. In this case, how such people depart is unknown.

When Allah Almighty, at the very beginning, in the Assembly of Elest, at that 'Qalu Bala', made a covenant with us, that covenant of ours became our own, that wish of ours became destiny, and from within those destinies of ours our Lord informs us of our states. So pay attention to this, He says. Pay attention to these events. Never take anyone's right upon yourselves. Do not (?) cast Allah's word behind you. Then the world appears showy to you, appears rosy. And Satan tempts you. When you have money and wealth, why do people flutter around you like moths? You are seized in your nafs by pride and grandeur.

And you turn your back on Allah, He says.

Yes. That is why one must pay attention to Allah's laws. For these there is a humiliating punishment. What is meant in the verse: while in worldly life, man is proud of his wealth and property. He insults and oppresses the people who work under him. He does not treat them as human beings, he tramples their rights, he is arrogant toward them. If he does not heed Allah and His Messenger and turns his face away from them, (?) those who worked under him, the people he did not treat as human and looked down on, when they attain Allah's mercy and are rewarded, these wrongdoers who see them enter the gardens of Paradise, seeing that their own selves are in torment, that they are no longer even looked in the face by the people they did not value, and that they have been contemptuously pushed aside and left subject to punishment, next to the punishment they will suffer the torment of their wounded pride will be so bitter to them that this is what the humiliating punishment will be for people.

As I said a moment ago, those people he despised will not look him in the face. According to the verse of Allah Almighty in which He says they are there without anyone and alone, everyone will turn their back on them. Even the people who fluttered around him in the world, or those who worked under him and whom he despised, when they attain ranks in the sight of Allah, since they too will turn their backs on the people from whom Allah has cut off His mercy, here no one will look them in the face; they will be left without anyone and alone. There, that pain will be enough for them.

Yes.

When those people (?) him, seeing that not even they look him in the face and that he has been contemptuously pushed aside and left subject to punishment, next to the punishment he will suffer the torment of his wounded pride will be so bitter to him that this is what the humiliating punishment will be for people.

Allah Almighty calls those outside the religion of Islam lying unbelievers. Lying unbelievers. Out of their pride and arrogance they did not submit to Allah Almighty, and they did not recognize their Lord as Lord. They waited for a Lord in their imagination.

Their pride and arrogance, in the real realm, that is, the world, will live, the Day of Judgment will come, those who see in the hereafter that our Lord's promise is true will there too wait for a Lord according to their own imagination, will think that Allah has wronged them, and that the Lord of their imagination will come and they will take revenge on Allah who created them. Within those fantasies they remain in Hell eternally anyway. Because their character does not change, they remain eternally in that state. In this case these people, because out of their pride and arrogance they could not submit to Allah, brought both their world and their hereafter to (?).

So, O man, fame and glory, pride and arrogance, egotism, self-aggrandizement, that is, being in grandeur, together with love of the world, these resemble a seven-headed monster. Apart from love of the world, if you break all its heads, they sprout again and come back to life. But if you break only the head of love of the world, the other heads by themselves wither and vanish. So, since man cannot take anything from the world, for this passing and mortal life to lay claim to these goods, to recognize no right or law, to oppose Allah and His Messenger, is that not wronging his own soul? If you do not like the law Allah has set, if you take the property of our women, our daughters, our children whom Allah created, without regard for right and law, if you seize the right of a person you see as weak, sir, if you take upon yourself the right of a helpless orphan, in the end did you think the world has no owner?

By the owner of this world that you saw as such, that is, as ownerless, one day you will be caught. What does it say? Every soul will taste death, and your return is finally to Me, says Allah Almighty. There is nowhere to escape from His door. We will certainly pass through that door. And while passing through that door we will be caught. There is nowhere to escape. Just as a magnet draws iron filings, so people will be drawn into the presence of their Lord. There is no side to escape to. They will be caught.

Yes. So, since man cannot take anything from the world, for this passing and mortal life to lay claim to these goods, to recognize no right or law, to oppose Allah and His Messenger, is that not wronging his own soul? Is man without responsibility? Is there no one who constantly watches over man? Allah Almighty created these worlds; did He leave them aimless? Are these worlds empty? May Allah grant us all good understanding. Yes.