Ali 'Imran 169: Do not assume them dead, those who were killed battling for the cause of Allah. To the contrary, they are alive! They are given provisions by their Lord.

You may ask your questions. Never think of those killed in the way of Allah as dead.

On the contrary, they are alive.

They are provided for by their Lord. They are provided for.

The martyrs.

They are alive. they hardly even know that they are dead. Now, I used to go to Çanakkale a lot. To Çanakkale.

I would walk around the martyrs' cemeteries.

Every time I walked those cemeteries, when I went to those trenches, it was as if from behind the trees, from those trenches, they were watching me. Eyes are looking at me. Eyes are looking at me. But I look, and there is no one. But I feel it. I feel it. Now, if without your knowing someone looked at the back of your neck for, say, three minutes, five minutes, the (?) that eye gives off, you would feel that someone is behind you. Well, I had such a feeling too. Such a feeling. They are still there, alive; that is how they feel. They are alive, they are still going to fight. In that trench, you know, they will fight the enemies.

Someone. I feel that.

I was that moved there, in that state. So they are alive. They do not know they have died.

'Do not think of those killed in the way of Allah as dead,' they say. How beautiful. They have reached the station of martyrdom. On the contrary, they are alive. In a verse Allah Almighty says: from places you do not know they are provided for. Those who give their lives for Allah, in the way of Allah, those who surrender to Allah the life that Allah created, these are the ones Allah loves, and they will not grieve either. Again in a verse: whoever, with their lives and their wealth, buys Paradise, it says.

With their lives, with their wealth; with their lives, that is these martyrs, and with their wealth, the generous, those who help the poor and needy, who create work for the jobless and weak,

to those with no wood or coal on a winter day, food, wood and coal those who provide,

those who, with the money they earned by their labour, for the servants Allah created (?). These too, according to the verse of Allah Almighty, with their lives and their possessions buy Paradise. Now, Allah created Paradise, Allah created us too, Allah created wealth and property too, and the wealth we earned by our labour, those trusts — it is not our wealth, it is Allah's trust to us. when we give them to our Lord, He buys His own property from us and sells us the Paradise He Himself created. Look at the greatness of our Lord.

Who is giving what to whom?

So when He says, take on the character of Allah, people treating Allah's creatures with such compassion and mercy, the generous buying Allah Almighty's Paradise with their wealth, by their giving. Buying Allah Almighty's Paradise. This is the greatness of our Lord.

They will not grieve either. Why? Because Allah Almighty will give them the station of intercession. To those He loves. From 7 people up to 70. They will intercede. Not for those who will enter Paradise, mind you. For those who will go to Hell. They will intercede. For their mother, father, uncle, aunt, whoever. For someone they love, a friend. So Allah, sending one percent of His mercy to the earth and keeping ninety-nine percent for Himself, to please His servants and to save from that punishment the people who depart with the religion of Islam, how He protects them with His mercy, how He loves them; because someone said 'Allah' once in the world, the filth he did after that disregarding, whom He makes the means to save him too there, and with 99% of His mercy He (?) His servants and does not easily open the roads of Hell to them; now, if someone is very sinful, that is an exception of course; still, within the religion of Islam if he goes, he will (?) his punishment there; of course, this is our Lord's great mercy. People, during their lifetime, think they are alive.

They say: we are living, we are alive.

Yet we are in the shadow of a thing. Yet many of them are dead.

Now a verse comes to my mind. We have written it here too, in fact. The verse: Allah Almighty says in His verse, do not be with the dead. With the dead. These dead are those whose hearts have not grown and flourished.

People far from Allah, far from the religion of Islam; do not be with them, He says. Do not be with the dead. So it does not mean the people lying in graves. Then there are those whose hearts have flourished and found life. There are the living: the friends of Allah, the saints. There is that group, you know, a third group, the group of the foremost (sabikun). Those who, while in this world, the hereafter, the places beyond death, those spiritual realms, watch and see them. Yes.

People, thinking they are alive, in drink, gambling, adultery, in swamps living, and taking this for life, do not know they are crawling in swamps within a dead life.

They understand at the moment of death, when that veil is lifted. When our Lord says: are you closer to him, or are We closer to him? Yes.

These are not the dead in the grave; they are people whose hearts did not flourish during their lives. These people have deified their nafs, fallen for Satan's temptation and turned their backs on Allah's commands. May Allah protect us. When they are about to die, they will understand the truth.

From his childhood until the moment of death, he will see the life he lived within a few seconds. A few seconds. How do you know, Hodja? We have experienced many things. Before dying, on the condition of dying, Allah lets you experience it. Allah lets you experience this. You see people smoking, you see the cigarette smoke; the smoking person, when he blows out that smoke, you see that smoke. a few seconds later the smoke vanishes. In exactly that much time, the life he lived, like that, before his eyes like a film strip. Allah Almighty says, We settle accounts quickly — a swift reckoning. Exactly like this. All will be reckoned very swiftly.

In that case the treasure of life is gone. And it will never come back. They say: my Lord, send us back, we will worship You very well. If We sent you back not once but several more times, you would do the same thing again, He says. Yes.

Again, in one of His verses, Fe levlâ izâ belegati'l-hulkûm. When the soul reaches the throat, go on, turn it back. But Allah is much closer to him than we are. By then the person has understood that he will die. The realms of truth have been shown to him. Then the person says to Allah: send me back, see how I will worship You. Yet the person's destiny has been written, programmed according to his wish. To that person Allah says: if We sent you back not once but several more times, you would again do the same. The journey begins to the realm from which there is no return. There is no going back anymore.

The martyrs who set out on this journey, who give their lives to Allah, have seen what is right, understood the truth, and in the sight of Allah great ranks attained; they are people who have joined the living. Among the living. The meaning of 'living' is: those who, while living their lifetime, gain the nearness of Allah Almighty and so join His friends. The hereafter — on passing into the hereafter, as if living the life of this world, by Allah's leave they become ones who gain power.

There are deep meanings here.

What is gaining power? By their Lord's mercy, Allah Almighty — since they are alive, they go wherever they wish with our Lord's permission. Yes.