Ash-Shu'ara 145: “I am not asking for any remuneration for this. The One who will give my reward is the Lord of the worlds.”

We have come to Surah Ash-Shu'ara, verse 145. I ask of you no payment for this. My reward is due only from the Lord of the worlds, he says. My reward is due only from the Lord of the worlds. Yes, the prophets and the scholars, the true scholars.

Now here we divided scholars into two. We said scholars, and we said true scholars.

A person who has studied to a certain level, who is (?) with superstitions, and who says I did a doctorate and thinks himself a scholar.

This is not a scholar.

The scholar as I know it is a source. A source, one who guides. He is like the sun, he gives light.

He has the ability to reason by analogy.

Among the scholars of our time, I see no scholar. We went to their professors too.

Even though he sees the falsehood — the witness is here. Even though I explain what is right, he says that is right too, and that is right too. Astonishing, really. To the falsehood too he says: that is right too, that is right too. Look at the feelings of the nafs.

He is a faculty member at Konya University. A graduate of the Faculty of Theology.

Yes.

We are talking about the decree of Elestü bi Rabbiküm. In the Quran.

Well, He brought forth descendants from the loins of the children of Adam, and they made a covenant with Allah, he says. Go ahead. I said: did you see Allah in the world? So they say, he says. In the mother's womb or on the other side — what you don't know, why do you write it? Why do you write it?

The scholar as I know it, the scholar, the true scholar — but now this is where the scholar is set apart: one who has reached the state of ilme'l-yakîn in nefs-i raziye, in Surah Al-Imran, verse 7, in the verse where He says ve'r-râsihûne — the person steeped in Allah's knowledge,

yes, it is this person that Allah Almighty addresses in the verse. The passing of your scholars to the hereafter is like the sun going and darkness coming, he says.

The Prophet Salih, addressing his people: O my people, for inviting you to Allah I do not wish to ask any payment from you. My reward is with Allah, in Allah's presence, he said. There you see: scholars, true scholars, from people not even an atom's weight, not even a scent, do they expect.

They wish for one thing. One thing. The pleasure of their Lord. They teach to win His pleasure. Not to give a conference somewhere and take five thousand dollars an hour, three thousand dollars, two thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars. May Allah protect us. What became of his teaching? Did you teach for Allah's sake? Or did you teach out of greed for money? Those who sell Allah's word for material gain. Yes. To the unbelievers and idolaters who were wrongdoers and enemies to their own selves — just as the idolaters, as if all taught by one another, said in response to the prophets' warnings: these are tales of the ancients, so too the prophets always answered these people with the same words in reply: I am a trustworthy messenger to you.

I ask no payment from you for this duty of mine. My reward is with Allah, they said. Yes.