An-Nisa 17: The repentance that Allah accepts is only that which is made by those who commit evil deeds out of ignorance and repent promptly. Allah accepts the repentance of those. Allah is All-Knowing (Aleem) and All-Wise (Hakeem).

Surah An-Nisa, verse 17: the repentance that Allah will accept is only the repentance of those who do evil unknowingly and then repent soon after. It is these whose repentance Allah accepts. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise, it says. Let us first read our text. Then we will explain these, God willing. In this verse Allah Almighty makes known which repentances He will accept. Allah did not create people free of error; people are not free of error. If people had not committed errors, He says, We would destroy them, (?) them, and create servants who commit errors. Yes.

Surely He has created people fallible in proportion to His will. Man will err, understand his error, repent to Allah, and will have come to know his Lord. What is repentance? It is knowing Allah Almighty. Repentance is man knowing his own helplessness. Repentance is man exalting his Lord before his Creator, and knowing Allah as the Creator and himself in helplessness. That is the meaning of repentance anyway.

In the (?) of David, Allah Almighty asks: how do you know Me, O David? O Lord of the worlds, I know Your essence as the Creator and my self in helplessness, he says. Now you have known Me, He says. Yes, so through repentance man comes to know his Lord. People find guidance, some at a young age, some in middle age, and some in old age. That is, let us not say he brought his nafs to perfection, let us not say, that is, let us not say his heart is at peace either, he strengthens his faith. Now he is on his way. If we give an example of this too. We give the example of two wrestlers. The head wrestler is wrestling. They grapple each other by the neck, one with the other.

While still standing, one sees that the other is stronger than him. He will beat me. Let me give up here before I am disgraced, he says. He pulls out and leaves. This is very good. Those who turn to Allah (?). Those who gain mastery over their nafs. The second, in middle age. What does that mean? Again they grapple each other by the neck. One brings the other's knee to the ground. He sees that this one will beat him. The one whose knee touched the ground. He gives up there. Before his back is put to the ground. This is very good too. He repents in middle age.

He turns to Allah. He gains mastery over his nafs. The third keeps on wrestling. One of them gets the künde hold on the other. Once he has the künde hold, there is no escape anymore. He will put his back to the ground. Before his back is put to the ground, he too gives up. At least he does not depart as an unbeliever. He too departs as a Muslim. Yes.

He will repent to Allah, turn in repentance, and will have come to know his Lord. So that is the meaning of repentance. People, some at a young age, some in middle age, and some in old age, find guidance. When a person will find guidance is not known. Even if people have been stuck in error all their lives, if they see the truth and repent, Allah accepts their repentance. So, such people, who unknowingly, by their own reasoning, took wrong for right, took wrong for right, and from the errors they made, in the swamps they were in, then see the truth and understand what is right, the repentance they make is accepted in the sight of Allah.

As we have explained it this way. Let us wrap this up briefly. Let us wrap it up briefly, in a more concise sentence. What does it say? The repentance Allah will accept is only the repentance of those who do evil unknowingly and then repent soon after. Now pay attention. What does it say? The repentance He will accept, what Allah will accept, is only of those who do evil unknowingly and. Then the repentance of those who repent soon after. Even if you did evil for sixty years, you did it unknowingly. There is no time limit to this here. That is, when you say unknowingly now, it is not the repentance you make right at that moment.

People were not created free of error, after all. Up to a certain time a person can go on the wrong path. When, He says, did you realize you were going on the wrong path? You realized you were going on the wrong path. Even if it were in fifty years. Even if it were in ninety years. The moment you realize you are going the wrong way, the moment you repent, I accept your repentance, He says. Then do not persist, He says, after that repentance. Do not persist in that evil, He says. So soon after, that is, the moment you realize your wrong, repent soon after, He says. And you will affirm that repentance with your tongue and confirm it with your heart.

Exactly like faith. Yes.

Not like the short-sighted view here, that is. You know, I will make a mistake now, I realized my mistake at once, I repented, it was accepted. It is not like that.

I may be on a wrong path. I may have set out on a path and kept going. For example, if this word I say does not prove this, if it does not prove something I will say, I will have made it up from my own mind. Take an unbeliever.

All his life he committed unbelief. He associated partners with Allah. All his life. Or an idolater worshipped all his life. Then he sees, oh no, there is an Allah who created these worlds, my path was wrong, it really was wrong. Anyway, the moment he says the religion of Islam is true and turns back, his repentance is accepted. Illallah. So it is not such a short-sighted repentance, that is. You know, I will make a mistake and I will realize my mistake at once. I will repent of it and that repentance will be accepted. It is not like that. Now is it understood, that is, how this is? The one who repents soon after. That is, the repentance of a person who sees that what he did, the path he took, was bad and repents the moment he realizes it, is accepted.

And in this repentance there are also suspended cases. Such as? I have been used to that evil for 80 years, 90 years.

Suddenly I saw the truth and turned back. But I have a habit. I do it even without wanting to. And afterwards I regret it again. But I do not want it. Deeds depend on intentions, after all. My Lord gives me the necessary allowance there. He gives that allowance. Because He knows your deeds, He knows your intention. And the moment you break away from it, your matter is done. What does this resemble? What does this resemble too? You work at a haram place. At a liquor factory, at a cigarette factory. Then you realize that this is forbidden, that it is haram. Allah Almighty does not tell you to leave there at once, suddenly.

Find a job to support your wife and children, to provide for your household, and do not leave there right away, He says. Do not leave there before finding a job, without making your wife and children needy, He says. Do not leave there in a way that makes your wife and children needy. Find a new job, then leave there. So, since a person too cannot suddenly give up his habit, when he commits that error once, when he turns back and commits that error, Allah Almighty knows his intention. He also knows he is in regret. So He gives him that allowance. His repentance too is accepted.

But if he saw the truth and repents, yet (?). He still takes pleasure in it. Their repentance is not accepted. And their course is also corrupt.

That is, I want to say this. No one can squeeze Allah's verses into a certain frame.

On what basis do you say that, Hodja? Allah Almighty's pardon and forgiveness are abundant. Is that so? His pardon and forgiveness are abundant. My Lord says so. So you cannot come and squeeze His pardon and forgiveness into some place and tie it there. Deeds depend on intention. There is Allah's pardon. There is the deficient creation of the human nafs. There is man's fallible creation. All of these will be gathered within the verses, and the deeds man does, depending on his course, his aim, his destiny and his desires and wishes, will be ranked. Yes. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Yes. When is repentance not accepted? It says. We say. Is there a time when repentance is not accepted? There is. Well, didn't Allah accept repentance? The soul at the throat. The soul came to the throat. When the soul reaches the throat, what does it say? İzâ beleğati'l-hulkûm ve entum hîne izin tenzurûn ve nahnu akrabu ileyhi minkum ve lâkin lâ tubsirûn. When that soul reaches the throat, He says, come on, turn it back then; are you closer to him with your power, or are We, He says. All his relatives wait at his side, that is, they stand waiting for his soul to depart, He says. In this case, as to the time when repentance is not accepted: until the soul comes to this (?) place, in one narration until it comes to the Adam's apple, repentances are accepted. Once the soul comes there, repentance is not accepted.

The reason is that Allah Almighty shows him the realms of the hereafter. The moment that realm opens, repentance is over for him. The door has closed. Before that realm opens, his repentance is accepted. How merciful Allah is to His servants. Yes.

The state of death has come to the person and the person has understood that he will die. The soul has come up to the throat, to the place of death. According to one narration, it has come up to the place in the throat known in men as the Adam's apple. Here the doors of repentance have closed. Surah Al-Waqi'ah, verse 83: When the soul reaches the throat; verse 84: Come on, turn it back then, He says. And you look on. In verse 85 He says: his relatives have gathered around him, waiting for his soul to depart. At that moment, at that moment We, with Our power, are closer to him. But you do not see, He says.

So a person has done evil his whole life. He has done evil. He has turned his back on Allah and His Messenger. He has not refrained from chasing the desires of his own nafs and following the footsteps of Satan. And finally, when the state of death comes upon the person, he has seen the truth and reality. This person's soul has reached the throat. He has said, now I believe. So the repentance of these people is not accepted. If we give an example of this: Pharaoh, while drowning in the Red Sea, when the two seas came together, says I believed, and falls in prostration to the God of Moses. But it is over. Because now the doors of repentance have closed.

And Allah Almighty says, by My essence, I will leave you, your lifeless body, as a lesson to the worlds, He says. A lesson to the worlds. In the (?) Museum, in England, I have pictures of it too. They took him out of prostration and laid him on his side like this. The position of prostration offended them, being like that. So that they (?). Turn it whichever way you like. Did you search and find him in the Red Sea? You found him. Did you believe the verse and go there? You went. However you turn him, by doing it that way you prove the grandeur of your own nafs, the peak of your greed against Allah, you do.

When Allah Almighty says He accepts the repentance of those who repent soon after, in terms of time He does not mean the time of the world, but timing it according to the time of the hereafter, He decrees: I accept the repentance of those who repent soon after. In a verse Allah Almighty decrees that one day of the hereafter is like a thousand years of the world. Here we cut it short. Here, if a person's life is like an hour and a half according to the hereafter, then within that time, within so much time, within your lifetime, the evils you did in one, one and a half hours, so soon after, that I will forgive it; that is, He ties it to his intention.

We say this according to the hereafter and tie it up here this far. Anyway, we said we would explain these. We said we would open it up and explain it. We explain it to people. Accordingly, if we take the human life as sixty years on average, this person's stay in the world, according to the time of the hereafter, is about an hour and a half, it accepts as a time. So within this short time He calls soon after, before the moment of death comes, He accepts the repentance of those who repent. A life passes like this, that is.

Surely Allah is the One who accepts repentance abundantly, Most Merciful and Forgiving. There is no person whose repentance is not accepted. But when the moment of death comes and he (?) understands that he will die, and the soul reaches the throat, and at a time when the doors of repentance have closed, the repentance of the one who repents is no longer accepted. Because Allah Almighty decrees, We are the One who accepts repentance abundantly. In the verse. Yes.

Allah Almighty is All-Knowing, All-Wise. Allah, who created the universe from nothing and creates everything in proportion to His will, surely is aware of all His creatures and knows everything. He is wise in His work. There is wisdom in what He does. But Allah Almighty making known some of His wisdom to people, however slightly, as far as He permits, is in order to show people that He is All-Knowing with His majesty and power. That He is All-Knowing. There are many secrets here. From wisdom, being able to sense the verses meaning by meaning. The person who, according to those verses, has the ability to sense, who has that wisdom, and He says, to whomever We give knowledge, We give wisdom.

Wisdom. He, (?) these verses, meaning by meaning, explains these to people. Meaning by meaning. Who explains it? Those to whom He has given knowledge.

Can't others explain it, Hodja? They do.

If they explain it, what is the difference between you? He explains one and tears down the other. He explains that one like that, tears this one down from here. What they explain does not hold together. But the person to whom Allah Almighty has given wisdom goes around the Quran with one verse. He goes round and round the Quran. Look, I keep explaining. Can you find in His words, in the verses, a word that contradicts another? Look, (?). Yes.

Go in Allah's safekeeping.