At-Tawbah 24: Say; “If you love your fathers, sons, brothers, spouses, close relatives, possessions you earn, the trade, which you fear will be disrupted, and the dwellings you have affection for more than fighting on Allah’s path, wait until Allah’s orders come. Nations that continue with great sins will not attain Allah’s guidance.”

We have now come to verse 24 of Surah At-Tawbah.

This verse is a verse that has been interpreted wrongly; we have put the correct version here, we have put it.

Yes, we have put the correct version.

First, let us read to you the wrong one, Surah At-Tawbah 24. Alright, now I am reading the wrong one. Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your spouses, your kinsfolk, the wealth you have earned, the trade whose decline you fear, the dwellings you like are dearer to you than Allah, His Messenger and striving in the way of Allah, then wait until Allah brings His command. Allah does not guide the fasiq people, it says. Yes.

Within "the fasiq people", it is the last word that is wrong. This last word is wrong; up to it, it is correct. That one last word characterizes Allah. Within that fasiq people, how many people there are who will become Muslim. You know, Allah's verses do not contradict one another; what does Allah Almighty say in one of His verses? Do not mock any people, that is, do not ridicule any people, saying: this one is a disbeliever, this one is fasiq, this one is an idolater. It may be that that people is a better people than you. Then, when it turns back, it may attain a higher rank than you. As for people coming into this world: one comes as a Muslim, lives as a Muslim, leaves as a Muslim.

One comes as a Muslim, lives as a Muslim, leaves as a disbeliever. One comes as a Muslim, lives as a disbeliever, leaves as a Muslim. Who says there were not, among those disbelievers, people who would become Muslim? One more verse for you. They always interpret them wrongly, and we correct them. Now, what does it say in the verse? They say to Moses: Unless you show us Allah openly, we will not believe you. Lightning struck them, it says, as they stood looking on. That is, they tasted death. He will not be seen in the worldly realm, after all. In the worldly realm it is a hidden realm, a hidden place of Allah Almighty, a realm where He is not seen.

At that moment, it says, lightning struck them. That is, they died. And finally, so that those among them, it says, might find the truth, within a span of time given to them, He restored them again. So that those among them... We have corrected those verses. He brought them back to life again, and those who had chosen the path of disbelief, (?) the truth, those who found it, turned to the truth. Yes.

Here too, the wrong part: communities that persist in being fasiq, communities that persist in being fasiq cannot attain Allah's guidance. Yes. Not "the fasiq people cannot attain guidance". Those who persist in being fasiq cannot attain Allah's guidance. For example, a Muslim, a Muslim, does he act like a fasiq? Of course he does. What does he do? He carries tales. From this one to that one, from that one to this one. He carries tales. Which Muslim does not pass on one person's words to another and is not acting like a fasiq? This weighs heavily on people's nafs, but I am telling the truth. I will tell you a verse now as well.

When a fasiq brings you news, it says. Look, it says a fasiq. Even if it is true, it calls him a fasiq. When a fasiq brings you news, as for believing it is true, do not believe him until you learn whether it is true, it says. Yes. So if it calls the one who carries tales a fasiq, it says: do not believe the fasiq until you learn the truth, and it calls him a fasiq. And he is a Muslim, too. Come now, in this case will Allah not be able to guide him? You know, people who leave this world as Muslims will surely attain guidance, will enter Paradise. When it says here they cannot attain guidance, it is as if never can they enter Paradise, as if destined for Hell forever, like a disbeliever, or as if such people can never attain guidance; such people who became Muslim can never attain guidance, that is, cannot enter among the people in whose hearts Allah has put His light, or cannot reach the state of a wali. Such a situation arises, and these are wrongly interpreted words. Those who persist in being fasiq, what do we say?

Communities that persist in being fasiq cannot attain Allah's guidance. Of course, if you go on in that state, if you do not heed Allah's command, then of course you cannot attain guidance while being fasiq like that, of course.

Yes. Let us read the verse once more. Having explained this part so much, after correcting it, the verse: Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your spouses, your kinsfolk, the wealth you have earned, the trade whose decline you fear, the dwellings you like are dearer to you than Allah, His Messenger and striving in the way of Allah, then wait until Allah brings His command, it says. How will Allah bring His command? Either He will send them a calamity, so that perhaps they come to their senses. Or He will raise those wrongdoers to higher positions where they are, so that they carry out their disbelief.

Them, it says, where they are; those criminals, where they are, rise to the highest position, so that they increase their disbelief.

Communities that persist in being fasiq cannot attain Allah's guidance. Whatever a person may possess, whatever he loves other than Allah Almighty, if he turns away from what Allah and His Messenger said, those things he loves will never be of any benefit to that person. Yes.

In one of His verses Allah Almighty also says: Your wealth and your children are a trial for you. How beautifully He says it. So the verses confirm one another. If you rely on your wealth and turn your back on Allah, if you do not see the One who gave that wealth and are praised for your wealth, then of course it has become a trial for you. Yes.

With the passing worldly blessings, he benefits from them in the material world. Of course, he will have exchanged the abode of bliss for these worldly blessings. For this reason Allah Almighty: Your parents, your children and family, the buying, selling and trade you do, your homes you like appeal to you more and keep a person from the way of Allah, if these possessions and your family seem to you more pleasing than emigration and jihad, than the word of Allah, then sit and stay and wait for Allah's command upon you. Yes. So what happened? Our wealth and our family have become a trial for us. The meaning in this verse, where it says "until Allah brings His command", speaks of people completing, within the frame of a set lifespan He has given every person, this term of life; speaking of the time within that life: wait for Allah's command upon you.

That is, according to the verse "Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are?", now you will prove yourselves, what kind of person you are, it says. You will prove it. Yes.

That is, until the decree of the Truth comes to pass, until the angel of death, Azrael (peace be upon him), takes our souls, live. Live. Then, when the soul reaches the throat, when the doors of repentance close, when the true hereafter is shown to you, when the journey to the abode of eternal life with no return, to the hereafter, begins, your wealth and property, your children and family, your parents and your remorse will never benefit you, it says. So wait for Allah's command. That is, how well you have proven yourselves. You speak of proof. When your life is complete, when your Lord's command, the decree of the Truth, comes to pass upon you, when that soul presses at the throat, when the soul presses at the throat, go on, turn it back, it says.

For what? Tenzurun. Turn it back, then. That is when the doors of repentance are closed too, send me back once more, look. When we say "how I will worship", when the journey to a realm with no return begins, neither following your parents' deeds that are outside of faith and thus selling your faith to them, preferring their path, turning your back on Allah will benefit you. Neither your wealth and property nor your children and family will help you. Because in the verse Allah Almighty: ve men ya'mel miskâle zerratin hayran yerah, miskâle zerratin hayran yerah. Ve men ya'mel miskâle zerratin şerran yerah, miskâle zerratin şerran yerah. Everyone will be given in full what they earned, as the recompense of their own work, of their two hands.

No one will be asked about anyone else. No one will be able to benefit anyone with his wealth and property. Benefit, with his wealth, with his property. Will one be able to benefit with something else, Hodja? One will. Allah Allah. With what? With the station of intercession. If you become a (?) servant of your Lord, if you rise to the class of people of whom He says neither a stain nor sorrow will touch them, Allah Almighty will lift that sorrow from you and will make you one who intercedes for those people. So that you do not go grieving, for the sake of your honour, because He loves you, just as, no offence in the comparison, a father loves his child very much, and that child says: you must buy me this; and the father's situation, let's say, does not allow it, but he loves his child very much; even amid those difficulties he buys it for him. Just so, because Allah Almighty loves His servants so much, so that even those servants who would go to Hell may be saved, to the people who attain that station of intercession He will give the right of intercession.

Who would not want to become such a person? It is not hard. You will master your nafs. You will love your Lord. You will act within His command. And you will find peace in this world. Peace. Otherwise we live in a frantic rush, under stress. We couldn't buy this. We couldn't find the money for that. The child wanted this and we were left in a bind. Let me tell you: on and on, needs, needs, needs.

Our mothers would speak to our fathers like this. They wouldn't say their name. They wouldn't say their husbands' names. I remember, my mother would call to my father like this as he left the house: Husband, look, husband, bring me a piece of dry bread, bring it halal, she would say. Halal. They too have passed on and gone. We are all guests in this world. They all passed on and went. We too will pass on. Look how beautiful their lives were, for they bowed to Allah's command. And they lived in peace. In peace. A person's provision is what he wears and wears out, what he (?) and drinks. Beyond that, it is property that will in the end remain as inheritance.

Yes.

Let me give you this.

So neither our wealth and property, nor our children and family benefit us. The one thing that benefits us is our faith. The acts of worship we perform. Just think: in this world you earn, you put your money in your pocket, you live as you wish. You have money. You can do whatever your heart desires. Likewise, if the earnings of faith are on your back like money, as a load, you too will do as you wish in the hereafter. Because my Lord will judge with justice. He will give you your earnings in full. Yes.

Yes.

Before the decree of the Truth comes to pass, before the spring of life runs down, if a person uses his reason, is saved from the temptation of the nafs and Satan, and turns to the truth, if he loves Allah and His Messenger more than what Allah created, loves them much more, yes. Is it (?)? What do we say? If he loves Allah and His Messenger more than what Allah created. Because whatever exists in the (?), Allah created it. What Allah created, Allah and His Messenger from... if Allah and His Messenger, more than what Allah created, he loves. Yes. We also read there: If he loves Allah and His Messenger more than what Allah created, he (?).

Allah has no need of anything.

He created everything for people. The hereafter, (?), in endless life, is for people. Every kind of need is ready there. In this case,

if a person loves what Allah created and turns his back on Allah, he enters the class of the wrongdoers.

Otherwise, a person does have love for created beings. It exceeds the love of Allah. If they turn their backs on Allah's commands, that no created being will benefit a person, Allah Almighty clearly declares in His verse. Nothing, with his wealth, his life, his child, his family, his money and goods, none of them will benefit you, it says. He says this clearly. Those who are praised for worldly wealth, children and family, those who with love of these live, people who, opposing Allah's commands and prohibitions, prefer the passing worldly blessings to the hereafter are fasiqs. These are fasiqs.

They eat and drink what Allah Almighty gives and never show faithfulness to their Lord. They are ungrateful. If they live in this state and complete their lives, they cannot attain Allah's guidance. Because they prefer what Allah created to Allah and are people who turn their faces away from Allah. May Allah reform those who are in this behaviour and understanding. May He grant us, too, a good understanding. Amen.