At-Tawbah 23: Oh you believers! Do not take (even) your fathers and your brothers as protectors/close friends if they choose disbelief over belief. Those who take them as close friends, they are the oppressors themselves.

We have come to verse 23. O you who believe! What does it say? Yâ eyyühe'llezîne âmenû. O you who believe! If they prefer disbelief to faith, if they prefer disbelief to faith — that is, in the world, if it suits the whims of the nafs, with that temptation Satan has given your nafs the world you attractive — the world looks attractive to you, and into that swamp it draws you. Yes.

Do not take even your fathers and brothers as allies. Do not take even your fathers and brothers as allies. If they are drawing you into that swamp, just as Abraham's father, as he drew Abraham into that swamp, as he drew him, would draw him, drew him, would draw him — he did not take him as ally. That is, he separated. Yes. Noah too separated from his son. How beautiful. One from his father, one from his son. What beautiful examples Allah Almighty shows us.

Whoever among you takes them as friends, those are the wrongdoers themselves. Wrongdoer. It is the wrong wrongdoing people have done to their own selves.

Moreover, while wronging their own selves, people want the same wrong to befall others too. For example, if we give an example of this, those who smoke hashish or heroin, those who drink alcohol, want to make friends like themselves. They want to draw them onto that path. Well, people who have formed that habit, that (?), with their habits want to make friends for themselves. They are seized by an inferiority complex. So, since the wrongdoers also wrong their own selves, they take as friends people who will enter their path, do wrong like them, commit wrong against people and wrong their own selves.

They want to draw them onto their own path. So Allah Almighty says: such allies, even if it is your father, even if it is your brother, leave their side, He says. How beautifully Allah separates Himself from the wrongdoers, how beautifully. Yes.

O you who believe, if they prefer disbelief to faith, they — do not take even your fathers and brothers as allies. Whoever among you takes them as friends, those are the wrongdoers themselves. O you who believe, who obey Allah and His Messenger, who say 'I am a Muslim', who, in the sight of Allah, to the verse inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-İslâm have given their hearts. Yes, those who believe according to the verse 'Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, the religion he seeks will never benefit him'. If your mothers, your fathers or your brothers, your relatives and close kin prefer disbelief to faith — those who, as if besides Islam there were another religion, follow any falsehood they heard of because it pleases their nafs, never take them as allies.

Abstain from them, withdraw. Distance yourselves from them. Yes, that is, saying 'these are my elders; I am obliged to do what they do', do not follow after them. Remember how beautifully Allah Almighty speaks to the idol-worshippers, those idol-worshippers who say 'we found our fathers on this path'. The verses all confirm one another.

'If your fathers,' it says, 'are a people who do not reason (?), will you still follow them?' it says. (?). How beautiful. Allah Almighty never, with His word, contradicts any verse, any of His word, in any other word.

'These are my elders. These are my close relatives. I saw them on this path. I do what they do.' Saying 'they were my elders', beware, it says, do not follow them.

In fact, at the beginning we list it so nicely. Who are they? 'O you who believe,' it says. On what basis do these believers believe? We list it here already. O you who believe. Those who obey Allah and His Messenger. Those who, saying 'I am a Muslim', in the sight of Allah, to the verse inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-İslâm have given their hearts — they are believers already.

'Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, the religion he seeks will never benefit him' — those who believe according to this verse. If your mothers, your fathers or your brothers, your relatives and kin, your close ones, prefer disbelief to faith, those who, as if there were a religion other than Islam, because it pleases their nafs, follow any falsehood they follow — never take these as allies. Yes, that is: 'these are my elders, I am obliged to do what they do' — saying this, do not follow after them. Whoever abandons the religion of Islam and follows disbelief, these are the wrongdoers themselves.

Because these people are wronging their own selves. And people who are unjust to their own selves cannot bring others to salvation and relief.

Believing people cannot be as wrongdoing as these people. In this respect these are wrongdoers. That is, however much believing people may be in wrongdoing, against the person in front of them in wrongdoing, at some point the light of faith stops them. They cannot go further. But these — people who, while still in the world, buy the eternal life of hell, the eternal abode of torment — the wrongs they commit with the very deeds they themselves have done, just think of them. These are wrongs. Yes.

These worlds Allah created from nothing — people defy Him,

do not carry out His command. If they rebel against Him, they become rebellious against the Lord whom they cannot overpower. If, puffed up with pride and arrogance, they cannot bow to Allah, then in the hearts of such people there are no feelings of mercy. Such people become wrongdoers against their own selves and against people. Now, while reading this paragraph, a question comes to my mind. Of course it will come to your mind too, so let me answer it. When I say, 'people defy Allah, who created these worlds from nothing, and do not carry out His command' — the unbeliever too knows Allah, he does not defy Him.

But when we say he associates a partner with Him — that is, when he calls Jesus the son — if he associates a partner with Allah, if he's not defying Him, what is he doing? What does Allah Almighty say? There is no god other than Him. Well, if you associate a partner with Him, wouldn't you be defying Him?

Wouldn't you have turned your back on His word? Say as much as you like, as the little ones say. Just as they said: 'You (?) us — we'll do what we know.' Well, and what does Allah Almighty say? Those — you know, the Lord they trust in, the one they trust, that one they trust — about that Lord, Allah Almighty says this: 'They will not see their lord.' Because there is no god other than Allah, for them to see what they imagined. And those who oppose our Lord's commands and turn their backs, who rebel against Him, who defy Him — that lord in their imagination will not come and save them, it says. Yes. Because they will not see him.

Because there is no god other than Allah. Allah Almighty has written out everything in the finest way with His verses. No human can find any deficiency in Allah Almighty. Whoever looks for deficiency should look for it in himself. Yes.

What did we say? People defy Allah, who created these worlds from nothing, do not carry out His command; if they rebel against Him, whom they cannot overpower — for Allah Almighty says: if mankind and jinn gathered together. If the community of jinn gathered, they could not overpower Allah. And (?), if we said let's include the angels too, you can't include them. Because outside their own will, Allah Almighty has programmed them. Humans and jinn have been left free within their own will. That is why it says: if mankind and jinn gathered. It doesn't include the others. Suppose it had included the others, had added the angels too — you would say: You programmed them Yourself anyway.

You made them obey You anyway, you would say. That is why Allah Almighty, so that no one can question it, does not put the angels into the matter. What does He say? If mankind and jinn gathered, they could not do Allah any harm. Yes.

He becomes rebellious against the Lord he cannot overpower; if, in pride and arrogance, acting big, he cannot bow to Allah, in the hearts of such people feelings of mercy are not found. Such people become wrongdoers against their own selves and against people. So, so that people may live in peace and safety, Allah, with the religion of Islam, has sent them, to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) (?), the Holy Quran. With His verses He grants life to people. Whoever does not judge by Allah's commands and turns his face away from Allah, these are the wrongdoers themselves. Yes. They, it says, in hell, to those taghuts, to the elders at their head: 'These led us astray.

Give them double torment, O Allah,' they will say. And they say: 'We had no authority over you; you were already on the evil path,' it says. Yes, they are telling the truth. He was on the evil path anyway. 'We told you this, and Allah told you this. But what we said was empty,' they will say. 'You anyway, (?) Allah's word and following one another, chose your own path yourselves,' they say. No one will be able to blame anyone. Everyone, in return for the (?) they have done, will see their punishment. Yes.