Al-Ma'idah 48: And We have sent to you the Book (Qur’an) with Truth as a confirmation and protection of the previous Book. Now judge over them with what Allah has sent down. Do not follow their desires by leaving aside the truth that came to you. We have given to each of you a divine law and a path. If Allah had desired, Allah would have created you as one nation. But (We have made it this way) for you to prove to yourselves (which character you are) about what We have given to you. So, compete in good deeds with each other. The return of each of you is to Allah. Allah will give you information (the truth) about the things about which you argue.

To the forty- eighth verse we now come. And to you too, to confirm the Book before it and to guard over it, We sent with the truth the Book, the Quran. Look what it says: confirming the Book before it, for you too. That is: O people, do you see? To the last one I sent, the Beloved of the Almighty, the Seal of the Prophets, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), to My messenger, My beloved, I sent the Quran confirming those before, with the true form of the verses contained in them. O people! Use your reason. Did the Prophet Muhammad read the Gospel? Did the Prophet Muhammad read the Furqan, the Psalms?

Did the Prophet Muhammad read the Torah? Could the Prophet Muhammad read and write? So if those verses are in the Quran, is that not a miracle for you? A proof that he is My messenger, says Allah Almighty. Yes, this is what He says. But we will think. We will think a lot. What does it say? And to you too, to confirm the Book before it and to guard over it, We sent with the truth the Book, the Quran. So judge between them by what Allah has revealed. Between them. Whether they are unbelievers or polytheists, or transgressors, or whatever they may be, even Muslims, never make distinctions between them.

And judge by Allah's ruling. Do not leave the truth that has come to you and follow their desires. To each of you We gave a law and a way. To each of you. That is, (?) with the same Quran verses, little by little a law, that is, a way, was given to them. But when it came to the religion of Islam, once the four books were united, with all their laws and with the religion of Islam, Allah Almighty showed all people the ways of guidance. With its legal rulings. Yes. He did this to test you. This is one of the verses explained wrongly. He did this to make you witnesses over yourselves. Yes. To make you witnesses over yourselves.

So race one another in good deeds. To Allah is the return of you all. Then He will inform you of the truth of the matters in which you differed. Who is this? Allah. Of the matters in which we differed, it says, We will soon inform you. That is, according to the verse saying every soul shall taste death and your return is to Me, on the Day of Resurrection Allah Almighty will call us to account for everything in which we differed. And He will inform us of them. Did I not tell you such and such in the Book? My Lord, O Allah, I did not read the Book. Did I not send you (?) and have it explained to you this way and that?

O Allah, I could not believe him. He will say: you did not believe in Me here either. Yes. He will make man a witness over himself. Witness. Is it Allah's attribute of being Allah? Man will have no question left to ask against Allah.

Yes.

How beautiful the verses are. How beautiful our Lord's word is. Beyond that: man lives in an ocean. In an ocean, in the infinite. He lives within infinity. It surrounds him from every side. As Allah Almighty's testimony to the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): We sent it down to you with the truth, confirming the Book before it and guarding over it. And He testifies. From whom? From his Lord, with verses. You are My messenger and My prophet, says Allah Almighty. With His verse — repeating the same verses is the address of prophets sent one after another to the following communities, so that they do not fall into the same error and deny their prophets; we say the words of the same verse are mentioned one after another for this.

It is Allah Almighty.

As proof of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), He gave him the Holy Quran too, as a proof.

What does it say? If it had been made up by a human, in the Quran you would find many (?) that contradict each other, it says. Even if humans and jinn came together, they could not produce a single verse of the Quran. Why can they not, Hodja?

Allah Almighty says 'O you who believe' — what do I say? 'O you who believe' — this equivalent, or 'these who believe' — is what we say. Even if we say it, our letters and words are different from Allah's letters and words. Allah's word is built on letters. What is within those letters? What secrets of creation are there? Which letter next to which letter forms which meaning, and what secret of creation comes about in it? This is in Allah's hand. That is why no one can produce its equal. Even if humans and jinn gathered, they could not produce the equal of a verse of Allah. Yes.

As proof of the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), He gave him the Holy Quran too. He sent it to all the worlds and to mankind as guidance and (?).

O My beloved!

Judge between them by what Allah has revealed to you. For I sent you, as 'mâ erselnâke illâ rahmeten li'l-âlemîn', as a prophet to all humans and jinn. Judge among people by Allah's ruling without taking sides. Without taking sides, impartially.

Do not leave the truth that has come to you and follow their desires. The truth that came to him is Allah's verses. Never follow their desires. And His address to him, to the Prophet, is never really meant for him; it is in the sense of 'I am telling you, my daughter, so that you, my daughter-in-law, understand.' That is the way Allah Almighty speaks. Yes. That is why, what does the Prophet say? My Lord educated me, and educated me well, he says. Would he ever compromise on his Lord's verses? But the way of speaking — Allah Almighty speaks like this to win people's hearts and to soften them gently towards Allah's verses.

Do not leave the truth that has come to you and follow their desires. O My beloved! When they come to you to (?) something, they want you to lean towards them and decide in their favour. Do not follow these desires and wishes of theirs. Judge by the rulings Allah sent to you. To each of you We gave a law and a way. According to your mental capacity and, (?), according to the ages you live in, We bound you with a ruling you could bear. We showed you your ways and the ways of worship you are to perform, says Allah Almighty. He is just; He does not lay on them (?) they cannot bear. Had Allah willed, He would have made you a single community.

Allah Almighty — 17,000, according to another report 18,000 realms — has created. By realm we mean: the wolf is a realm, the ant is a realm, the bee is a realm, and likewise fish are a realm; lions, tigers, snakes, all are a realm. He created them to complete one another and to make the world flourish.

Besides these, of course, there are those in the heavens and (?) between them.

Allah Almighty programmed these 18,000 realms for the duties they will perform. All created beings carry out their duties according to their programme. Human beings, however, being free in their will, have been given their own intentions; with their own will, human beings have chosen their own ways themselves. In this respect, partial free will is in man's own hand. When we say partial free will: with his own free thought, on condition that in no way, by no one, tyranny or pressure is applied or force used — the decisions a person makes with his free thoughts, and the deeds he does. A person's good deeds and sins.

The judgments he has made. Yes.

Had Allah Almighty wished, He would not have put people's will in their own hands. And people too (?). Then He would also do away with paradise and hell. Because this is Allah's mercy. People would be like robots before their Lord's command, or like the noble angels, before their Lord's command (?). Yes, they would all be a single community.

But in the way and laws He gave you, He sent people to the world to be witnesses over themselves, to their surroundings and to Allah. So the person whose will is in his own hand, if he abides by the rulings Allah sent, wins Allah's pleasure. But if he does not abide by the rulings Allah sent, they wrong their own souls and incur Allah's wrath. Yes, it is with these laws and ways that people are tested — tested. They prove what kind of person they are; for what does Allah Almighty say in the verse? Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? it says. Yes.

So the person whose will is in his own hand, if he abides by the rulings Allah sent, wins Allah's pleasure. But if he does not abide by the rulings Allah sent, they wrong their own souls. They incur Allah's wrath. It is with these laws and ways that people are tested. We are in a world of testing. They call themselves to account and make themselves witnesses before Allah Almighty. Now the way and the law is the way of the Holy Quran, sent as a mercy to all the worlds, and its law. This is the time for people to be tested. Their lifetime is people's treasure. Those who follow the Holy Quran, which Allah sent last, as a mercy and a light to the worlds, and the Beloved of the Almighty, the Seal of the Prophets, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), win their test.

Whoever abides by what Allah revealed, they are the ones who attain salvation. Yes. So then, race one another in deeds.

In good deeds. Race one another. A person envies the car his neighbour or friend has bought, his house, his yacht and such property, and longs to buy them himself. He shows desire and longing, yet if, for the hereafter, they turn their backs on those who do good — who pray, give charity, go on Hajj, give zakat and so on — they have not done good deeds. Just as we envy our neighbour's yacht, his palace, his (?), his car, we should envy those who worship too, and race to do as they do. Yes, race in good, it says. Race. Subhanallah.

But if, envying those who abide by Allah's legal rulings and those who race in goodness, they race one another to do even more good deeds than them, in the hereafter they will reach the longings and wishes people dream of. In the hereafter. What did you want? A palace — the finest of palaces. Vineyards and gardens. The finest of them all. Streams with rivers flowing beneath them. Around them, (?) whom not even a jinn has touched, and people living in peace with their spouses, eternally and endlessly. What would it cost? Allah does not ask anything of us. Say 'Allah', He says. Carry out what I said.

Do not do what I do not want, He says. But look at this nafs of ours. And that Satan, with the temptation he gives us, makes this world look so beautiful to us that, with the pride, arrogance and grandeur of the nafs, today (?) and those who race immorally to gain the world, who race to gain the world, and finally those who desire the world without picturing the punishment of the hereafter — afterwards regret is of no use. Look, our Lord warns us beautifully with the verses. How beautifully He warns. What will happen? This place will pass. Even if a person dies (?), in the end this suffering will end. But the punishment of the hereafter does not end.

And likewise the peace of the abode of bliss in the hereafter does not end. They are endless. Yes. So in this world we will (?) our nafs. We will not follow the trail of Satan and of the Taghut. Their looking down on us, belittling us — it is only because we act as a mirror to them and they see themselves in us; if they only knew those feelings in return, they too would give up everything they have to be like us. But alas, that nafs has veiled their eyes and blocked their ears. Yes, the word of truth will (?) that veil, it will remove the plug from those ears, so that it sends its light down into that heart.

Good deeds — our racing in good deeds (?) — brings us a life above the worlds we long for. For Allah is self-sufficient. He created what He created to place it at people's service. Whoever is worthy reaches it. Whoever is worthy reaches it. Surely our return is to Allah. Every soul shall taste death, and in the hereafter, at the Great Court of the end, we will be called to account. O man! Never forget this point of death and the Day of Reckoning, so that your conduct in this world is for Allah. For Allah. Never forget that death. Omar says so too. Perhaps a parable — a beautiful parable. We do not suppose Omar would do such a thing, but they give an example from Omar. He hired a man and said: remind me of death every day.

And the man reminded him of death every day. One day Omar looks in the mirror and sees white in his beard. He says to the man: now there is (?) for you to remind me of death. Why, O Omar? It was so good, he says. And I was also (?) my family.

Now, he says, white has come into my beard. I remember death every day, he says. Yes. In truth they never put death out of their minds. But they told this as a narration. Now even we remember death in every task we take up. What does remembering death remind us of? After death — when He says every soul shall taste death (?) your return is to Me — that in the task we do we remember death: in the presence of our Lord, at the Great Court, how will we give account of it? The deed. That is why we must remember death in everything we do.

Surely we will pass through that door. Surely we will be freed from the prison of the body. In fact, in this world where we seem free, we are in such a vice-like prison: both the prison of the world we cannot get out of, and the prison of being locked in the body. But since it is our horse, we can steer it (?) wherever we want; we say our freedom is in our hands. As for the prison of the world, because we cannot leave it — because we roam a wide place — we think ourselves free inside this prison. Squeeze this into a smaller, smaller, smaller room — there, a prison. When, with death's (?), we are freed from this body, then when spirit, self and life become one and we return to that realm, we will have been freed from this prison.

Yes, surely our return is to Allah. Every soul shall taste death, and will also be called to account at the Great Court. O man! Never forget this point of death and the Day of Reckoning, so that your conduct in this world is for Allah.

Surely Allah will inform us of the truth of the matters in which we differed. Whatever He sent before, in the Book too, with His verses, to us, when we differ — one meaning of differing here is deliberately going on to deny Allah's verses, deliberately changing Allah's verses to fit them all to their desires — falling into such divisions, those who want to turn people in their favour, or who want to turn the verses in their favour: Allah will pass His judgment between them. People fell into dispute over religion. Abiding by the parts of the rulings in the books in their hands that suited them, and turning their backs on Allah with the parts that did not suit them, they went far away.

For this reason they became unbelievers. As for the parts that did not suit them: in the books in their hands, the features of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) were described, and although they knew he would come with the true religion, they denied it. On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will inform them of the truth of the things in which they differed. For Allah hears with His attribute of hearing and sees with His attribute of seeing. Nothing remains hidden or concealed with Him.