Ali 'Imran 74: Allah gives mercy to whoever desires (from Allah). Allah is the Owner of great goodness.

This verse they have rendered wrongly; it is one of the wrongly rendered verses. Yes. What does the verse say? Let us first read the wrong one. Let us first read the wrong one. He singles out for His mercy whom He wills. Who? Allah Almighty. He supposedly singles out for His mercy whom He wills. What happened? Now there is discrimination. There is a discrimination here. Discrimination. He singles out whom He wills. Yet all of them are servants of Allah. Not whom He wills. Now look. Picture it like this. Suppose a father had 20 or 30 children, isn't that so? There are. There are such cases. In the East, 20, 30.

No, there are those with 35 children. If this father were just, what would he do? Whichever of them is talented, whichever is better, whichever has the sharper mind, he picks him to lead the others. What happens? They all follow him. Isn't that so? Don't they do that? The one with a sharp head, a sharp mind, the more talented, regardless of young or old, the others follow after him. So if Allah Almighty is said to choose whom He wills, among people isn't there discrimination? Therefore He gives His mercy to whoever wishes for it. To whoever wishes, that is, whoever wishes for Allah's mercy, to him He gives His mercy. Hodja, I wish for it but I see no mercy, I am oppressed.

Look now, you wish for His mercy, but sometimes you say Allah, and sometimes 'yallah'. Whereas a person should always say Allah. So how is it sometimes Allah, sometimes 'yallah'?

I smoke, I need to quit, but, one cigarette, never mind, this won't hurt.

Your friend offers you a glass. Well, I don't drink, but for your sake let me have one. Well, these became 'yallah'. Yes. Whereas when you say Allah, you are to keep away from these. You are to keep away from the forbidden and the disliked. So that you will then have kept, for Allah's sake, this body entrusted to you safe. What does He say? Because of the way you used the bodies given to you, I will call you to account, says Allah Almighty. So if you do not use this trust within Allah's command, if you make it say sometimes Allah and sometimes 'yallah', if you also give it some forbidden things, then tomorrow, on that Day of Judgement, when you come before Me with a driver, We will silence your mouths, bind your feet, make your hands speak, according to the verse, and they will bear witness to Us. Yes.

So the person who struggles with his nafs and brings his nafs to perfection, what is he? He is the one who wishes for Allah's mercy. Allah's mercy. You are to struggle with your nafs, try not to step outside the religious ruling, try to be a servant to your Lord. In your prayer, your supplication, your fasting, your ablution, your honesty, your word given, from lies, from showing off, from every kind of fraud and injustice, you are to stay away. And after that person has perfected his nafs, he will be among the servants Allah loves, he will enter. What happened, who wished? Man wished, man. Man wished, and Allah rewarded him for these good deeds he did.

Yes. So here, instead of Allah's wishing, it is people's wishing. What does Allah say? He is the Possessor of very great bounty. Yes. Now how have we rendered the verse? Allah, besides whom there is no god, Allah, absolute Owner and Ruler of the universe, created people deficient and fallible in mind.

If Allah Almighty had created people complete and perfect, He would have created equal beings like Himself. Allah forbid. And people would have had the power to create, (?) would have been gods. In that case. What does Allah Almighty say in His verse? If you had never erred on earth, We would destroy you and create servants who err, He says. Here it does not mean: you must err and I will forgive you. Turkish speech can only answer this much. So what is this? I made man deficient, so that against My command his mind falls short, because he is deficient, his mind falls short, or he follows his nafs, and in the period of ignorance he is the dead one, while in that dead state, not the dead in the grave.

The living dead. What does He say? Do not be with the dead. In the verse. These are the living dead. Not the dead in the grave. In that case man can step outside Allah's verses. He can act outside what He says. He can become a sinner. But when he comes to his senses, when that heart (?), through the door of repentance and asking forgiveness, when he turns to Allah Almighty, he finds Allah Almighty as Oft-Returning and attains that life. Yes. So with these deficiencies of people, with the mistakes they have made, with mistakes their minds (?) made, the moment they feel guilty before Allah Almighty, the moment they know their helplessness, their repenting and asking forgiveness from their Lord fits Allah Almighty's purpose in creating man.

And Allah Almighty forgives him. What is it? Not: I will err knowingly and Allah will forgive me. When your mind falls short. When I cannot find a direction for myself. Or, sir, when I am captive to my nafs. My faith commands me not to do it, but when I cannot master my nafs. And at a time when he is half dead, or fully dead, or when the heart has not (?), with the mistakes people have made, when people later (?), go on Allah's path, see their own helplessness and see that they are guilty before Allah, when they repent to Allah Almighty, Allah Almighty also turns their sins into good deeds. So every person on earth is fallible, because his mind is only that much.

Allah Almighty created people in such a way that they need His Being. And man is to know his Lord and, always knowing his helplessness, try to fulfil his duty toward Allah Almighty. That is what man is anyway. Apart from this, with the feelings of the nafs, fame, renown, pride, arrogance, egotism, grandeur, worldly desire, and such feelings of the nafs drag a person into disaster, he will have brought himself to a (?) state toward Allah, so that in his helplessness, without any proof in hand, without any power, through this kind of boasting, pride, arrogance and grandeur, he receives the slap of Allah Almighty.

They are restless both in this world and in the hereafter. Their hearts are scattered and restless. And they can never find peace. Yes.

Since Allah Almighty created people deficient and fallible in mind, people knowingly or unknowingly can err and sin. If the feelings in people become prominent and begin to develop in a person, if the person turns back from the sins he committed by following his nafs and Satan and asks his Creator for forgiveness, since there is no other god besides Allah and people cannot find another door to go and take refuge at, Allah forgives people. Yes.

As I explained above, we explained how His pardon and forgiveness are.

As long as man turns his face to Allah. As long as man repents from the heart. From the heart. What will he say? He will say to Allah Almighty: forgive me, I have repented. And then do the same thing again. That is, he will deceive Allah with words. It is not like that.

Even what you yourself cannot know in the farthest corner of your heart, Allah knows. So He says. We know the secrets of hearts, He says. In that case you said from the heart: my Lord, I have sinned. I want to be rid of this. Forgive me. I will not do it again, you said. From the heart. But out of that helplessness you did it again. You did it again. Crushed and shrunken, you (?). You smoke, you smoked your cigarette. You drink your alcohol, you drank your alcohol. You shed tears to Allah. Asking Him to save you from this. He knows your heart. And until you are rid of it by struggling with your nafs in this way, that sorrow of your heart and your leaning on Allah in that way, your Lord knows better than you.

That is why you may make the same mistakes once, twice, three times. After that it falls into your helplessness, so that the repentances you make only deceive you yourself. Why does it deceive you? Now it has become a habit in you, this habit. This habit drags you into disaster. That is why you must take great care over the repentance you make and try not to do it. So that it does not become a habit in you, so that you keep your word. So that your will grows strong and you fit Allah Almighty's purpose of creation. Because Allah Almighty created man capable and strong. Yes.

As long as man repents from the heart. Such people, beginning to advance on the path of perfecting the nafs, placing Allah's light in their (?), will have taken the path of becoming a person good for themselves and for others. Yes, why did Allah Almighty establish acts of worship anyway? Reform your nafs. Live out your lives on earth as brothers, in a festive spirit. That is the purpose of worship. To reform the nafs. What does the Prophet (peace be upon him) say? If the worship you perform does not keep you from evil, it is a burden on you, he says. A burden. In this respect a person may be a very great sinner.

But in the end he has felt remorse. He has been ashamed of what he did. The fear of his Lord has settled in his heart. And this person is like bewildered people who do not know what to do. So Allah calls out to His creatures with this verse. What does He say? O people! Is there no one who asks of Me? Let Me answer him. Let Me take him under My mercy. My mercy is very great and vast. Let Me grant him bounty and gifts, He says. Yes. So His mercy is given to whoever wishes for it. Who wished? Here, now, man wished. It is not that Allah willed it and did it.

Yes. What you do is the return of your two hands, according to the verse. For an atom's weight of good you do I will record good, and for an atom's weight of evil, evil, according to the verse in which He says this.