Al-Baqarah 16: They are those who bought misguidance in return for guidance. Their trade did not generate a profit and they could not find the right path.

They are those who have bought misguidance in exchange for guidance. Their trade has not profited, and they are not among those on the right path, it says. What does it say? They are those who have bought misguidance in exchange for guidance. Remember, Allah Almighty says to people: O people, I created you the noblest of creatures. I gave you a little of My Self. That is, I gave you a part of My spirit. And I left you free with your own will. And I took you as a mirror of My Self. I gave you worth. Yes, so know Me as Lord, know Me as Allah, be grateful for what I have given. That word of Mine — with the Holy Quran I have sent you, or else with your prophets — obey them. This is a path that will lead you to guidance. If, however, you, to your prophets or to the verses — and I say 'your prophets' including the past too — well, 'Obey My commands so that you may find life,' He says. Otherwise, in exchange for this guidance you buy misguidance.

That is, you buy unbelief. You buy dark roads, swampy roads. So you think you are trading. That is, you worship idols, you associate partners with Allah, you think you are worshipping, but you suffer loss. Your trade is (?), well, you turn into a bankrupt merchant, He says. Yes. Such people have bought misguidance, that is, punishment, in exchange for guidance and salvation. In one verse Allah Almighty says of Hell: what an evil place of return it is. Yes. And in another verse it says: what an evil bed it is. Bed: a place to lie, a place to sleep. Yes, he will stay there permanently, that is, his permanent place.

In the (?) verse Allah Almighty says that a thousand years of this worldly life are like one day of the hereafter. In this world, a person's sixty-year life is, in the hereafter, like an hour and a half. Allah Almighty programmed all these beings in accordance with His own will. All beings, in accordance with Allah Almighty's will, were programmed. Only humans and jinn were kept outside this. Why? Humans and jinn were given a mind within their own will. They had themselves — they had themselves programmed. Yes.

He left only humans' and jinn's own will in their own hands. He willed that His Self be known through jinn and humans, who hold partial will in their hands. That is: I will create such a being that, I will create such a being that, by its own will, without Me programming it, that person, using his own reason, within his own will, will know Me. Come on, I dare you. Allah Almighty throws down a challenge to people. Like what? Come on, He says. Do whatever you do. That thing you make — without you putting a program in it, without putting a program in it, that thing you made you cannot run. Apart from this, I give existence from My Self and create a living soul.

I create existence from nothing. And that being programs itself, and I, for those people, those to come until the Day of Judgment, those within their own desires and wishes — all their desires and wishes, their aims, I write as their destiny. Then, later, even if this whole universe united and became hostile to Allah, not one of them could do Him even an atom's worth of harm — in such a state He creates them. He creates them, and those people, in this way, with their own desires and wishes, to their own will He leaves them.

Then He makes His Self known, and within that will, people, if they submit to their Lord, find the truth. They attain guidance. If he turns his back on his Lord, what does it say? Their trade is (?), and they are not among those on the right path. Nor are they among those on the right path. Their trade is (?), and (?).

So, for His Self to be known, He did not force any being, nor did He use force. For whom? For humans and jinn. People's desires and wishes, their own aims, the desires and wishes we call partial will, He left in people's own hands. People are unaware even of this partial will.

The universal will is Allah Almighty. He says (?), He creates. He creates. There is His creating too. Partial will is this created person's own steering of himself with his own desires and wishes, programming, and being for himself a commander, passing judgment, and in this case, with a good mind, understanding, and within this understanding telling good from bad. This will is man's own decisions. In the verse that says 'what you have earned, the return of your own two hands', this is the person able to use this partial will. He will use his partial will, his ability. He will decide himself, and with what he does, with the decisions he makes, he will receive reward and sin.

Yes. Nor did He use force. People's desires and wishes, their own aims, partial will — the desires and wishes we call that — He left in people's own hands. The people He created so sublime — why did He create these people so sublime? Because He gave of His spirit. People are very sublime. Lekad halaknel insane fi ahseni takvim. 'I created man in the finest form,' He says. Yes. That His Self be known through the own will of the people He created so sublime, He willed.

For His Self to be recognized, while still in the world of spirits, He gave people proofs. In the world of spirits, before even entering the body, He gives proofs. What is it? The first proof is His divine Self. Opposite them. 'I am your Lord,' He says. Because apart from Him, no second god saying 'I created you' came forward. What does He say? I created you.

Well, I am like Him too, but did He really create me? But I look, and I was created. (?) I am not capable of anything. I look, and I am in helplessness. I have an existence. Right opposite, our Lord says, 'I created you.' Well, He's like me, but how do we know He created me?

If someone else created me, He would destroy Him too, and destroy me too. Now all those feelings are there, because He gave us those feelings. When we come to ourselves, just like this situation, we have these feelings in us.

What if someone else created us — let time pass, we say. But within that time no second one comes forward. Why doesn't one? Now, let's say I said — God forbid — to make it better understood I say this; there is no fault in a comparison. If I said 'I created you', at the first creation, if I introduced My Self to you, introduced myself to you — if it wasn't me but Allah who created you, that is, if that Lord created us too, what would He do? (?) me. He'd say, 'Not him, it's Me,' and come forward. He would make His Self known. Sorry?

Don't you dare take what I'm saying as nonsense. Allah Almighty has the word of testimony. Eşhedü en la ilahe illallah. I bear witness that Allah is One. Ve eşhedü enne Muhammeden abdühü ve Resulü — there is no god but Allah. If He has me bear witness, He has me bear witness to what I saw in the very beginning. For those who don't see these places, the capacity of reason is not enough. Well, what does He do? 'I am your Lord.' And He leaves time too; since no other came forward, we too have been created, yes, this is our Lord. The first proof. Opposite, the second proof: the proof of the blessing of reason Allah Almighty gave people.

There is reason too; we make comparisons. Do you never use your reason? Do you never, let me put it, reflect? The proof of reason. The third proof is that, through the mercy to the worlds, the master of both worlds, Muhammad, He makes known with testimony that the One who created us is our Lord — that proof. The Prophet himself, at Allah Almighty's side, yes, addresses people saying, 'This is our Lord.' That is, a confirmation.

Also, in what we call the hidden world — that is, in this world where His Self is not seen — His sending prophets so that His existence is known, sending books,

scholars being sent, and also miracles being created through the prophets — for people who have reason, these are proofs of the existence of Allah Almighty.

Yes.

Let's read it once more up to here. These are important places. The first proof: His divine Self. Because apart from Him, no second god saying 'I created you' came forward. We pass over this briefly like this. In the tafsir this part is as follows. We have been created. All the spirits opposite. Three groups. Well, in the middle, three prophets. David, Jesus, Moses. I'm on one side by myself. Our Lord, and the Prophet (peace be upon him) beside our Lord; Allah Almighty says to all His creatures before Him, 'I created you.' Believe me, exactly alike. Exactly. Same form, same shape. Because spirit is spirit.

Look, I was giving you an example. If we take a drop from the oceans, we say, (?) it carries the property. That is water, this is water too. It has those properties. But (?) partial, (?) whole. Yes. And in this case no other god besides Him comes forward. He gives time too — none. So, people turning their backs like this — our Lord, before people, saying 'I created you,' and they turning their backs, talking to each other, well, and in that pride and arrogance rebelling against Allah.

This is, for a person who uses his reason, the first proof of the existence of Allah Almighty. The second proof: the proof of the blessing of reason Allah Almighty gave people. That is, what we call (?). I was created. I was created, but did He really create me? That is, did the One called Allah, saying 'I created you', create me?

If He didn't create us, our Lord who created us would come forward, say 'I created you' and destroy him, wouldn't He? He would introduce Himself to us — none comes forward; there is none but Him. Look, if this world is the likeness and shadow of the hereafter, then in this world too Allah Almighty has been speaking since our father Adam. He has been speaking since our father Adam. To whom? Up to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He keeps speaking. He tells him all the past, completes the Quran.

And He speaks to those to come until the Day of Judgment. So what a fine reason that is: in the world, those who, like the Nimrods, like the Pharaohs, say 'I am god' — all of them mortal, and, well, (?) defeated by Allah's creatures — are they God? Or He who has no beginning before the beginning and no end, the Manifest and the Hidden, who has addressed us since our father Adam, and who says the inheritance of the earth and heavens belongs to Allah, who holds the sovereignty of dominion in His hand, and who created from nothing — the owner of these worlds? He is our Lord.

So these, these are in time, within time, running after pride and arrogance — people. What were we explaining in the verse? They are those who have bought misguidance in exchange for guidance. Their trade has not profited, and they are not among those on the right path, it says. Yes. In this way, out of stubbornness and arrogance, without obeying Allah, following Satan's steps — just as he got our father Adam expelled from Paradise — these too, following Satan with selfish desires, are people who turn their backs on Allah, those who don't use their reason; their trade has not profited, well, they are like a bankrupt merchant.

And what else does Allah Almighty say? And they are not among those on the right path. What do we say? In this case, though every person knows Allah Almighty, it is purely his selfish desires — yes, failing to overcome his desire, being carried away by his desire and wish — that he rebels against Allah who created him. Though he knew Allah Almighty as Lord, he denied the One who created him. That is, man denied his Lord. Yes. So, these people's covenant being likened to a trade, they are people who, though profit and loss are known, knowingly prefer loss and go bankrupt. In a hadith our glorious Prophet says: the bankrupt of my community, that is, the one who goes bankrupt, is not the one who goes bankrupt in this world but in the hereafter the one who goes bankrupt.

So their dealings are (?); they are like a bankrupt merchant. Their roads too, in their course, outside a right road, are dark and swampy roads, and such people have made these deviant roads their emblem. Why? Are their roads never bright?

As long as they carry out Allah Almighty's commands, (?) people outside Islam too who, on the path Allah Almighty showed, carry out His commands without knowing, or, finding it fitting by their reason, do it — they are exempt. Exempt. Because they are within Allah's commands, they are on the right path. On the right path. When they judge by their own reason, they are on a crooked path, a swampy path; in the swamp they are in darkness.

Even if they had gone on the right path, apart from a person (?), even if they had gone on the right path, since by their own reason they have made crooked roads, swampy roads their emblem — that is, if they deny Allah or deny His Messenger, or knowingly, deliberately deny a single verse of the Holy Quran — they are unbelievers. They are unbelievers. One more verse for you. Allah Almighty: all the fine deeds they have done have gone to waste. What is it? On that right path, carrying out Allah's command, such that consciously, such that with conscious minds, then on the bright path, within that command, on that path, on the bright path — a fine deed.

Because they are Allah's commands — a fine deed. But because they persist in denial and associate partners with Allah, what does Allah Almighty do to them? All that work they did has gone to waste.

What did we say earlier? Even if they did good deeds as big as this world. As big as the world.

Let's leave the world: as big as the first heaven. Let's leave that too: as big as the seven heavens. Let's leave that too: the Throne of Allah (?), as big as all these places lost with time — if they had done good deeds.

Denying the one Allah. Or deliberately denying a single verse of Allah. Or denying Allah's prophet — because, more than the weight of all these fine deeds of theirs, the weight of this unbelief presses down, they are bankrupt merchants; they fall into this. Yes, their trade has not profited; they are bankrupt merchants.