Ali 'Imran 186: Vowingly! You will be put to test regarding your possessions and your lives. You will hear many saddening words from those who were given Books before you and from the polytheists. If you exhibit patience and show piousness, this is surely the most valuable of actions.

You will surely be tested in your wealth and your lives, says Allah Almighty. Of course. Why had we come to this world? We came to prove what kind of person we are. To prove what kind of person we are. Well, does Allah Almighty not know? How could He not know? When we made our covenant with Him, our wish and desire as destiny He wrote for us. For whatever we will live within our destiny, He gave us our characters. Within those characters and destinies of ours, He knows what we will do. Then why does He test us? As our son Faruk asked earlier, spiritually, as a part of Himself, He created us. Because at that address Elestü bi-Rabbiküm people saw Allah Almighty as like themselves, they set about, with their own minds, expecting from Allah Almighty the Lord of their own imagination, and, looking down on Allah who created them, out of their pride and arrogance they did not obey Him as Lord. So in this situation Allah Almighty said: I will send you to an unseen world.

To an unseen world. He is free from any deficient attribute, after all. In that unseen world I will make My Being known to you. There every soul will prove what kind of person it is, He says. So, Allah Almighty, who is free from deficient attributes: so that every person, with his own self and his own wish and desire, with the judgements he has made, within his own limited free will, may prove what kind of person he is, we came to the world of possession. The world of the hereafter was closed to us. In what we call an unseen world, in the worldly world, in a world where Allah Almighty is not seen, we are being tested.

Those who know and those who do not know, well, here those who know Allah and those who do not know Him will be tested. A test. You will surely be tested in your wealth and your lives. He will test us sometimes with our wealth and sometimes with our lives. What will we say? My Allah, You gave us an affliction, You took our child, or You made us ill, we fell ill; afflictions are for testing.

In Your verse You said You do not load on us a burden we cannot bear. Surely we are in a test in this worldly world, a passing world. You do not load on our backs a burden we cannot bear. In that case, since the afflictions given to me come from Your Being, accept me among those who meet this in the best way, and among those who get through this affliction given to me in the best way join me. If you can say, I am content with what comes from You, be content with me too, you have passed the test. If you say half this way, half that way, then you pass the test that way. If you deny, then: you are that kind of person, He would say.

Allah Almighty will say it on the Day of Resurrection. We go bankrupt in our wealth or we lose it. It happens. What will we say again? Wealth and property belong to Allah. He guarantees the sustenance of those He created. (?) Allah. If my sustenance has run out, Allah Almighty will take my life too. In this case you will again say: join me among those who are most beautifully patient, to Allah Almighty. And you will continue your prayer like this: My Allah, I am content with You. Even if You crush me between two millstones, I will never give You up. But for those whose faith is not complete, well, who will protect their faith through material things,

because of this lack of material things, they might go against You, they might not be able to bear it; for them, for them, so that their faith, their faith is not harmed, grant it, O my Lord, you will say. You will still ask, though. You will ask for me. This is the best state.

Thinking both of yourself and of those after you. How beautifully you say it. A prayer. Well: you will be tested in your wealth and your lives. From those who were given the Book before you and from the polytheists, many hurtful words you will hear. Well, do we not hear them? We do. Never mind the polytheists, we hear them even among ourselves, from Muslims. A passion for being the head has arisen in people. An arrogance and self-importance has enveloped people. Whom? Those at the head of communities. Even though you speak the truth, even though you speak the truth, looking for a calf under the ox, we meet people who prevent the truth from being made known to people.

Here I will explain to you a side of ours that is very lacking. This is our very lacking side.

We told our children about it here a few hours ago too. If we painted a donkey, if we changed its shape,

in a prominent place, God forbid, such a thing would not happen, but (?), if we made it king, king, because it is king, without looking at (?), everyone shows it respect as a king. What is this? People, look at those people who, through advertising, have made a name. At those who have made a name through advertising. Where does the word coming out of people's mouths go? What does it do? Is it in line with the verses? Is it in line with ideologies? No one thinks about it. Who said it? So-and-so said it. Ah, he said it right. Come on, just once, criticise it. That so-and-so has a name, but is the word coming out of his mouth right?

Just criticise it once. We do not have that (?). That is why we never amount to anything. We cannot progress. And we trip up those who speak the truth. So we hear many hurtful words. For example, we had this Quran printed. We had it printed.

A man reads it. He says the Quran is exactly the same as the others; and of course it will be exactly the same. You cannot change the verses, can you? We say there are red writings in it. Red writings. Look, we say there are red writings like this. Here. And these, these they wrote wrongly. Read these, we say. The others are correct. So you cannot change it. But their true meanings are wrong. Wrong. Read these. Then save Allah from being given attributes. No. Who is this man, I wonder? Which school does he belong to, he says. On top of that he asks about the school. Look, when it comes to the truth, he investigates thoroughly.

But he never investigates the one who has made a name. He has a name, so this is right, he says. That is how we do not use our reason.

And look how beautifully Allah Almighty says it. Because you do not use your reason, I will bring (?) upon you. Which person tells you: use your reason? From the beginning I have been telling you to use your reason. From the beginning I have told you: reflect, use your reason, compare, compare. That is, if you can do this, you will gain your own selfhood. You will distinguish truth from falsehood. You will grasp who speaks the truth and who does not. And in that case you get yourself out of it, you find the truth. So what does Allah Almighty say here now? From those who were given the Book before you and from the polytheists, many hurtful words you will hear. Besides that, we hear them from among ourselves too.

If you are patient and show taqwa — well, we are patient, we are patient. We see them at the level of children. At the level of children. And we turn to taqwa. That is, we make no concessions on Allah. Surely this is the most valuable of the things to be done. And we are following that path anyway. Now we have understood the verse better. Is that not so? We have understood it better now. Now let us also explain it for the general public here. What do we say? Every person is tested with the wealth he earns in the world and with his life. Allah Almighty, by bankrupting the wealth He has given people and causing them losses, by sending fire and flood disasters, by giving people many afflictions we would never think of, tests them with their own lives or their children.

In this affliction, whoever puts his trust in Allah and is content with the destiny written, he passes his test. And whoever rebels increases his kufr with his rebellion against Allah. Every person, with the events Allah creates for him, in his destiny (?), makes himself, before Allah, a witness, and cannot object to Allah, saying, I would have done it this way. This is the attribute of Allah Almighty's being God. What was it? In each person's life, within his lifetime, however many questions he would ask, He brings them about, (?) him from the question. Since He brings about whatever he would ask on the Day of Resurrection, he will see, facing himself, the actions he did, and afterwards he will be (?).

From those who were given the Book before you and from the polytheists, many hurtful words you will hear. If you are patient and show taqwa, surely this is the most valuable of the things to be done.

Those who accepted the books Allah Almighty sent before Islam, but with the coming of Islam, out of stubbornness or grudges, did not accept Islam, those hostile to Islam, and the polytheists, will insult the Muslims. Do they not? They do.

These Muslims will hear many hurtful words from them. The polytheists, as we explained in our earlier lessons, are those who do not believe in Allah and the Book, (?) people. Allah, who created the universe, made a covenant with each soul separately and wrote their desires for individuals as destiny. Since Allah knows what these people will do and say, with the verse He warns the Muslims, saying: from those given the Book and from the polytheists hurtful words you will hear. Do not answer these words; if you are patient and show taqwa, surely this is the most valuable of the things to be done. In this last verse too Allah Almighty shows the way to the Muslims.

That is, in the last verse, let me say, His saying: do not mind them, turn to taqwa, is His showing the way to Islam, to those who are Muslims. Yes. O you who believe! The words you will hear from the People of the Book and the polytheists do not answer. Because when they see a response from you, out of their own selves they, against Allah Almighty, insults will utter. You, as Muslims, with the light of faith, enjoin good and forbid evil. But against people in this state, by speaking the truth you only increase their kufr. Their kufr. Does speaking the truth increase the kufr of the person facing you? The Quran says it increases the believer's faith and the disbeliever's kufr.

So when you recite the verse, they get into a state as if the clouds in the sky would be torn apart. To prevent their kufr too, turn to taqwa and be patient, He says. Be patient. Both evil is prevented, and you, by not falling into sin, since you are bound by Allah's verses, earn reward. For this reason, since Allah is aware of the state of His servants, He says this is the most valuable of the things to be done. Yes.

My advice to you according to this verse: every person is free in his own will. No one is anyone's slave, nor anyone's satellite. Know this well. No one is anyone's slave, nor anyone's satellite.

Because every person will be called to account for the judgements he himself made. How do we understand this? My Allah, he says, these leaders of ours led us astray, (?) us. Give them double punishment, he will say. And they will say: we had no authority over you. You yourselves, of your own will, followed us, they will say. These are verses. So, I repeat, as Bekiroğlu once said to us: you are putting a mortgage on people's minds, as he said — actually, to confuse the minds of those who explain the religion of Islam truly, these are words said. We always say it: we address such people too, and the people who will come out like this too.

No one is anyone's satellite, and no one is going to chain anyone's thoughts either. Everyone is free in his own decision and judgement. With the decisions he makes, (?), with his actions, he earns reward and sin. In that case, use your reason, with your reason distinguish the straight from the crooked. If you are bound by the crooked and by superstitions, and you come to realise that these are wrong,

if you are also at the head of a community,

if, to explain Allah to people, in your heart, in conscience, between Allah and yourself, you are surrendered to Allah, the moment you find the truths, tell those people those truths too. Never oppose the truths and, saying I explain Allah to people, out of a passion for being the head lose your own head. What does Allah Almighty say in the hadith? (?) the Prophet (peace be upon him): whoever falls into the passion for being the head loses his own head.

We always call out to you from here. We are not after being the head. We explain Allah's verses. If I grasp a verse wrongly and explain it, and you do not tell me the right thing, the burden is on you. Among those listening to me there are scholars too. There are those who pass for scholars listening too. So if all together in this world we are in a test, if all together we walk on Allah's path, we are obliged to embrace one another. We are obliged to carry one another on our backs. We are obliged to be in unity and togetherness. Whoever breaks this unity and togetherness falls into division in religion.

Falls into division in religion. Of those who split their religion into factions, do not be one. Each of them prides itself on what it has, He says. The religion of Islam is free from this. I am trying to tell you these things. I am trying to explain Allah's verses to you. Never be my satellite. If I say what is right, take it; if I say what is crooked, warn me. Yes.