Ali 'Imran 139: Do not show weakness and do not sadden. If you are believer, you will be superior.

We have come to verse 139 of Surah Al-Imran.

Do not weaken, do not give in to grief. If you are believers, it is you who will prevail, it says. The verse came down at the Battle of Uhud, at the Battle of Uhud. But just because it came at the Battle of Uhud, we will not necessarily tie it to that alone. Because the verses of Allah Almighty are valid until the Day of Judgement. Until the Day of Judgement. Be it in our lives, be it in some of our affairs, be it in our spending: while doing some work we have spent something, discouragement comes over us, we turn back from there, we have shown weakness. We have entered a war, a war, and there discouragement comes, by the insinuation of Satan; when about to prevail, one shows weakness.

Or else, because we have won, one shows weakness, and we let our enemies get the upper hand over us. That is why Allah Almighty, with His beautiful verses, gives us life. What does it say? It is you who will prevail. Why? Because your faith, your trust in Allah, plus the promise of the Hereafter, the promise of Allah Almighty, the promise of Paradise: these are superiority. The ocean of martyrdom is all superiority.

Besides, the strength that unity and togetherness bring about drives the other side into discouragement. Especially when a person leans his back on Allah, it is not possible for that Muslim to be defeated. Yes, if you look closely at our forefathers, in the Ottoman Empire, wherever it went, wherever they went, they defeated them all. All of them. The history of the Ottoman Empire is full of glory and honour. But these were people who had opened their hearts (?) to Islam, who had become one with Allah and with the religion of Islam. They were brothers. They knew brotherhood. Not like now, you for yourself and I for myself.

They invented many words to set people apart from one another, to drive Islam apart.

Yes, when the Muslims at Uhud at one point scattered through disobeying the order and were defeated, Allah Almighty, addressing the noble Companions, and in truth addressing all people to come until the Day of Judgement, says: do not give in to grief because you were defeated. If you are patient and stand firm, it is you who will prevail. And in one verse He says: just as you tasted defeat here, they too had tasted defeat at Badr. At Badr. Even more bitter. Yes. Since Allah Almighty knew that (?), He gives the Muslims good tidings. Do not mind, He says, that such marauders, the non-Muslims, have scattered you like this; in truth you were not scattered.

You disobeyed the order, He says. The order. Otherwise you were the victors, He says. You were the victors. So you tasted defeat because of disobeying the order. God willing, from now on, He says, you will not disobey the order.

Yes.

Indeed, if you look closely at the verse, it says: if you are believers. That is, when a misfortune befalls you, will you at once lose heart and give ground on your faith? Or will you run back the way you came? If you put your trust in Allah and are content with what comes from Him, if you are content with what comes from Him, Allah too is with you, He says.

To slacken during war, to show discouragement before the enemy, is weakness of faith.

Our fathers, our forefathers, when they sent their children to the army, would say: my son, if you run away from there and come back here, I will kill you with my own hands. Don't you dare flee from war; the news of your death is good tidings to me, he says. In war. Yes. That is why now the weeping and wailing, those who do not know what martyrdom is, and from the weakness of faith in Islam, people have come to a (?) where they would hardly even go to war. For their homeland, for their nation. Yes.

To slacken during war, to show discouragement before the enemy, is weakness of faith. Those who act like this and run away are people who accept defeat from the start and lose everything.

We lived through the closest example of this recently.

When the Americans entered Iraq, their armies were met by desert storms; those who brought down a helicopter with a rifle. Allah Almighty helped the people, but they could not see a single Muslim against them. They walked in swinging their arms freely. Even though Allah Almighty gave them so many difficulties, the storms in that desert, even though He made their weapons stop working, they found no one standing against them. What happened? Did he save his life? If only he had not saved his life and had not sunk into that dishonour, that indignity, that swamp. Neither their chastity is left, nor their honour, nor their dignity.

This is the enemy. Rather than surrendering to the enemy, death is a million times better. Yes. Of course, if you know Allah. If you know Allah, if you have faith; otherwise, look what the unbelievers say: my homeland is wherever my belly is full, they say. We say: our homeland is the piece of land kneaded with the blood of our forefathers. There is a great difference between the two. They cannot be compared. Then we will not let this land, kneaded with the blood of our forefathers, be trampled by the filthy and the impure.

This is what belief and faith in Allah are like.

Rather than losing everything and living in humiliation under the captivity of other nations, to fight heroically on the battlefields, drink the sherbet of martyrdom and reach Allah is the most virtuous of acts of worship. The most virtuous of acts of worship. Because it is the rank of martyrdom. Even the Companions grieved when they could not become martyrs.

Ja'far al-Tayyar too grieved that he had not become a martyr. Khalid ibn al-Walid likewise. But Ja'far al-Tayyar became a martyr in the end. And he said to the Prophet: if I become a martyr, may Allah give me two, a wing in Paradise. He alone will have two wings in Paradise.

Yes.

To join the martyrs whom Allah desires, to attain Allah's mercy, to win the Hereafter, is far above living in captivity, and so honourable and sublime that it cannot be compared with a life of humiliation: it is an act of worship.

Allah Almighty tests people with many events.

So that people and unbelievers, so that believers and unbelievers are told apart, so that those who stand firm and hold fast to Allah's commands come to light, so that Allah takes martyrs from among you, He keeps turning such events among people in rotation.