Hud 89: “Oh my people! Let your animosity towards me not bring upon you a calamity such as the ones that came upon the people of Noah, Hud and Shelah. And the land of Lot is not too far away from you!”

Surah Hud, verse 89. O my people! Beware lest your enmity toward me – like what befell the people of Noah or of Hud or the people of Salih – bring upon you, too, a calamity. And the people of Lot are not far from you, it says. How beautifully Shuayb (peace be upon him) puts it, how beautifully he warns his people.

Beware lest your enmity toward me – like what befell the people of Noah or the people of Hud or the people of Salih – bring a calamity upon you too. And the people of Lot are not far from you, it says. That is, not long before Shuayb (peace be upon him), the people of Lot were destroyed. After that, Shuayb's (peace be upon him) people, the people of Midian, appear. It is not far from you, it says. Their names are there. Shuayb (peace be upon him), addressing his people: O my people, beware lest your enmity toward me, your not believing in me, your denying Allah and the hereafter – in return for it, like the calamities that befell the people of Noah or of Hud or of Salih, a calamity come upon you too.

He warns them. They too had not believed their prophets, he says. Yes. Now a question like this may come to your mind: Hodja, we don't believe you either. Will we be destroyed too? Believing me or not brings you no harm at all. It brings no harm at all.

But not believing a prophet brings harm. Believing a saint, a friend of Allah, or not, brings a person no harm at all. Where does it bring harm? The harm – according to the verse, We do not call anyone to account for what We did not make known – if you did not believe the truth with your partial will, then you suffer the harm.

When will you suffer the harm? When you did not believe the truth with your partial will. Like what? If, bound by superstitions, you close your ears to the truth, tomorrow, on the Day of Judgment, before Allah Almighty, you will not be able to say: My Allah, if only You had sent someone to make me hear, so that I heard these and turned to the truth. You will not be able to say it. Yes.

These peoples went astray; Allah, so that they would find the right way and attain guidance, sent them prophets. But these peoples did not listen to their prophets' warnings. They persisted in not believing in Allah and the hereafter. They associated partners with Allah. Thinking themselves powerful, in their minds, suited to their own interests, they made laws. Then they called these religion. The lies they made up, to the idols they worshipped, (?). They turned their backs on Allah. Don't you be like them. By thinking as they thought, in return for Allah sending me to you as a messenger and making the truth known to you, do not, like these peoples, take the path they took, he says. Yes.

Yes. My people, the people of Lot are not far from you either, it says. O my people, the people of Lot are not far from you either. As the past, their memories stand vividly among us with their examples. We all know what befell them. And still you will persist in your stubbornness? Will you still insist on not turning back? Saying this, he wanted to protect his people from the calamities to come. At the same time he (?) the duty of prophethood. If a prophet or a person is telling the truth and the right to people, then the words coming from his mouth show where a person stands. Rumi too says: Tell me one word, and I'll tell you where you stand. If Allah sends a prophet, he is a prophet. Since, after the Seal of the Prophets, the Prophet Muhammad, no prophet will come again, and since Allah Almighty will not leave the world without scholars, He raises scholars and sends them.

He raises scholars and sends them. In this case, for the scholars that Allah Almighty raises there is no requirement that they must know Arabic.

What? There is no requirement that they know Arabic. On what basis do you say that? By your own reasoning? I say it according to the verse.

I say it according to the verses. What does Allah Almighty say in the verse? We send to every people their prophets in their own language, it says. We send to every people their prophets in their own language. Since no prophet will come again, since per the verse none will come, in keeping with the verses Allah Almighty raises from among the people a person, and, in his people's language, the translations and meanings of the verses He teaches him. As much burden as he can carry, as much as he can warn people, He gives him the duty and has him explain it. If we say: we too were raised by Allah and have a duty, from religion to remove superstitions, that is our duty – which Arabic wording, though it had explained Allah's verses wrongly, did not kneel when we explained the right meaning?

So this matter does not work by Arabic wording.

They themselves know very well that by what they call sabık and siyak, that is, by the flow of the Quran's verses, the giving of meaning is not by the Arabic wording. It is by what the meanings of Allah's verses correspond to. In this case we too have proclaimed the truth to the places it needed to reach.

We're telling you the events here. In this case, there is no one who hasn't heard.

First, with the verse I mentioned a moment ago, Allah Almighty decrees: We send every prophet in the language of his own people. It must be Surah Al-Qasas, verse 47, I think.

You sent us to a hidden world. If only You had sent us prophets to explain the truth to us. Since no prophet would come, You should have sent scholars. Look how we would have worshipped You there – lest you say that, We sent prophets, it says. Since no prophet would come, We sent scholars, it says. Now, can you deny these?

If you are a Muslim, can you deny these verses?

We are telling you by which paths we were raised.

So when we explain these truths, the verses, when we explain correctly their wrong renderings,

you cannot say: he explained it by his own head, by his own mind – that's one. Nor can you say: this man doesn't know Arabic, his word isn't worth heeding – that's two. Let's take your word seriously, granted, let's put it on our heads, but explain it correctly. Don't ascribe attributes to the Truth. Allah is not the best of those who make and create. There is no other creator alongside Allah, such that He would be the best of creators. He is the Creator; there is no equal to Him in His creating. No equal, no peer either. If you call Ezra, Jesus, Mary the son and wives of Allah, then yes, let Allah be the best of those who make and create – they say (?) Allah anyway.

They've lulled you to sleep very nicely. And in this way you still keep up your silence. May Allah reform you. May Allah grant you the trait of fearing Allah. May He grant you to carry out your duty in a manner befitting Allah and His Messenger. Lillahi Teala'l-Fatiha.