Al-Baqarah 95: For the things they have previously done with their own hands, they of course, will never desire death. Allah knows the oppressors well.

We come to our lesson. We had stopped at verse 95 of Surah Al-Baqarah. What does Allah Almighty say? Because of the deeds their own hands sent ahead, they will never wish for death. Who? The Jews. Allah knows the wrongdoers well. Now, now, with people's false words, with superstitions, with their baseless talk, upon a spider's web they have laid a foundation. Upon a spider's web. And of course no building without support or foundation stays standing. People have tied everything to Allah. To Allah. Allah will do it this way. Allah will do it that way. Well, of course we will tie it to Him. Look, how will Allah do it so, how will Allah do it thus?

He will do it. He will, but how will He do it? According to my actual deeds: if it is reward, Allah will put me in paradise; if it is sin, Allah will put me in hell. But Allah will not put whomever He wishes into paradise or hell. Because people do not know this, they have thrown the responsibility off people, lifted it away. They have pinned it on Allah Almighty and people have begun to wander about this world irresponsibly. They have stopped fearing Allah. But look, what does the verse say now? Pay close attention. What does the verse say? Because of what their own hands, that is, their actual deeds, sent ahead, they will never wish for death, it says.

What did we say in the (?) verse? If they are close to Allah, let them wish for death. They never will. Why? Because they never carried out what Allah Almighty said. So they do not wish for death. Because they will be called to account for what they did, for their actual deeds. Allah knows the wrongdoers well, it says. The wrongdoers. How does He know them well? When we made our covenant with our Lord at the address "Alastu bi-Rabbikum", Allah Almighty, who wrote our wish for us as our destiny, of course knows us better than we know ourselves. Yes.

With the changes they made in the Torah, which they had earlier distorted with their own hands, they know the punishment for the prophets they killed will not go unpunished.

For this reason they never want death. They also killed the prophet John. They also killed the prophet Zechariah.

Yet by their own talk, paradise is only for the Jews, they say. No one who is not a Jew can enter paradise. And if any of them go to hell, the fire of hell will not touch them for more than a few numbered days, they say. Who says this? The Jews say it according to their own ideology. If Allah Almighty had carried out what people say, looking at their wealth and property, looking at their children and family, this world would have gone "kun fayakun". It would have vanished, gone. Allah has a law. He is "A-laysa Allahu bi-ahkami'l-hakimin". All that He created are Allah's servants. Allah does not act unjustly among His servants.

Whatever He commands one, He commands to all. So then, Masonic-minded people, who see themselves above other people and among themselves set up lodges,

who rank people and, above the ranks, people to themselves, who see people as their servants, actually they, the believers to themselves being a mirror, that they are the porters of the world, that they are the porters of the world, that in the hereafter they will wrong their own selves, the believers' mirror, seeing themselves before it and saying it that way. That is, the believer's mirror: seeing the believer and taking it upon oneself. In this case these people, if only they knew, says Allah Almighty, for what they sold their selves, and if they go against what, against the verses of Allah Almighty, in the hereafter they remain subject to eternal hell, remain subject to that place of torment.

Yet by their own talk, paradise is only for the Jews, they say. They themselves. No one who is not a Jew can enter paradise. And if any of them enter hell, the fire of hell will not touch them for more than a few numbered days, they say. Now, I ask the person who has reason.

Not with the nafs, let us think with our reason. If I stuck a needle into your hand, and twisted the needle there in your flesh, with you tied up all over so you could not escape that needle, would I make you moan and groan? You would. Could you bear it? Where this needle pierced. Well, if a thousand years of this world are one day of the hereafter, if they are one day of the hereafter, saying, torment will not touch me for more than two or three days, and these two or three days, that is two thousand or three thousand years of torment in that fire of hell there, the torment of that fire of hell you accept, and here in the world, in a life like an hour, an hour and a half, you choose this.

Can this be called reason? Is this the work of a reasonable person? So these are people without reason, poor people who, within their own ideologies, fit Allah into their own minds, make laws according to their own minds and follow those laws, those ideologies. Well then, is this path, which is Allah's right and law, His straight path, abandoned, and the crooked laws people made for their selfish interests obeyed, and are these followed?

Yes. Yet they, what crimes they committed with their hands. Conspiring against people with no one to protect them, they drove them with slanders from their homes out. From their homes. What did Allah Almighty say? In verse 83 of Surah Al-Baqarah.

Be good to your mother and father, you, well, do not shed blood, do not drive out from your homes, do not drive anyone out of your homes. Never mind driving them from their homes; even though they took them for (?), even though they took them for ransom, they still used them as slaves and still did not let them go. Which verse of Allah Almighty did they carry out? Yes. For this reason, since Allah Almighty knows their state very well, He says: since they are truthful in their words, then let them wish for death. Since they were close to Allah, come on, here is the challenge. Gentlemen, ladies, this world is a dungeon. A dungeon for the Muslim.

A prison. Truly a prison. With death, if he is a Muslim, he will reach the endless joy and delight of the hereafter, that peace. So if this place is the Muslim's dungeon, the Muslim's, and they are close to Allah, come on, gentlemen, go ahead; if I said, if I said I am close to Allah, what would Allah Almighty say? Come on, then he wants death. How would I know that I am close? No, how would I know? Allah Almighty answers. To whom? To them. What does He say? Come on, if you are close to Me, wish for death. Wish for death.

He will never wish for it, it says. Again, it says it with the verse. Even if he had a thousand more years of life, he would want to live them, it says. Yes.

We continue. Only people who have believed in Allah and His Messenger and been honoured with Islam know the beauty of the hereafter.

I draw attention to this. What do we say? Only people who have believed in Allah and His Messenger and been honoured with Islam know the beauty of the hereafter. We restricted this here. This way.

There are such people who have come to know the manifestations, who in the hereafter, with the clarity of many spiritual unveilings of Allah Almighty, have witnessed His events and who, as those close to their Lord, have found peace. Who are they? I say this according to this verse. I restricted it here.

The angels and the scholars bear witness to Allah's existence, it says. The angels and the scholars bear witness to Allah's existence. We restricted it there. Because we wrote it for the general public. We said we would open it up in the commentary. Plus there is one more verse. What does Allah Almighty say?

When We created these worlds, We did not take Satan and his companions as witnesses for Ourselves. So there is a code in this verse. There is a secret. Since He did not take Satan and his companions as witnesses when He created these worlds, just as our Lord in the hereafter that He is our Lord, that He created us, as He said "I am the one who created you", to His prophets, to His righteous servants, to people whose nafs has risen to purity, who know the secret of secrets, He has shown some of His qualities. That is, He has shown the events in the creation of some beings. How do you know? Because I know it too.

That is how I know. This is called the secret of secrets. Opening it, disclosing it is forbidden. We would break Allah's laws. Well, how are we to know, Hodja? You can tell it like this, you can say it. Believing or not believing is up to you here. It is up to you. Faced with so many words, believing or not is also up to your faith. I am not saying if you do not believe you are faithless. God forbid, Allah protect us. You may not believe it. No harm comes to you. Yes, we continue. For this reason, hoping for martyrdom on the fields of truth, longing to reach Allah's promise, only these wish for death.

Who? The martyrs. Not sophistries like you. Not those who shirk Allah. Not those who disregard the commands Allah has sent. Those who sacrifice their life for Allah, who give their life to Allah to strive in Allah's way, only they wish for death, hoping for nearness to Allah.

Khalid ibn al-Walid shedding tears because he could not become a martyr, at the moment of death meeting death standing, Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) in battles throwing himself into the ranks, on every field, every battle field, fighting on desperately without fear for his life, all this was so they would reach Allah's promise. Khalid ibn al-Walid was a commander never defeated in battle. Never defeated in any battle. Even in the (?) victory, while losing, the one who turned victory to himself thing at Uhud, in the Uhud campaign, not at Tabuk, at Uhud, well, with the cavalry units, upon the Muslims who were winning, when the Muslims charged the fleeing enemy, the noble companions who did not listen to the Prophet's word were at once surrounded.

And at Uhud even the Prophet's (peace be upon him) tooth was broken. So, from the polytheists, even when he was the polytheists' commander, he was never defeated. A commander who, with his army of three thousand, entered the Byzantine army of forty-eight thousand at one end and came out at the other. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) sent them to a battle, the banner, he says, first my uncle Tayyar will hold, he says. Tayyar. Ja'far al-Tayyar. He used to pray. Because I could not become a martyr. he would weep constantly in Yemen. However much they consoled him, he would never (?). My friends become martyrs one by one, and I could not become a martyr.

When he came to Medina the Radiant, he says to the Prophet: if I, in battle, become a martyr, what will happen, he says; let two wings be fitted on me in paradise, he says. The only one who will have two wings in paradise is Ja'far al-Tayyar. That is where the name Ja'far al-Tayyar comes from. He will have two wings. Now, first, he says, my uncle will hold the banner, Ja'far. After him so-and-so will hold it. After him so-and-so will hold it. That is, the Prophet is counting those who will be martyred. Then so-and-so will hold it. Then pull back, choose a commander over yourselves, he says. After that, attack.

Ja'far al-Tayyar: they cut off the hand holding the banner, he takes it in the other hand, they cut off the other hand too, he takes it in his mouth, then they cut off his head too; meanwhile the next commander arrives, takes the banner, he too is martyred; the next arrives, he is martyred; the next arrives, is martyred, and finally they pull back. Those there choose Khalid ibn al-Walid as their commander and they win the battle. He is called Sayfullah. Sayfullah, the Sword of Allah. In one battle a polytheist commander comes out against him. In the old days they used to fight one on one like this, to stir up the battle.

Khalid ibn al-Walid invites this polytheist commander to Islam. This polytheist commander says, they call you Sayfullah, he says. Do you, he says, have the sword of Allah, he says. No, he says. I have, he says, a few hairs of the Prophet's beard on me, he says. Perhaps, he says, for his sake Allah Almighty does not let me, he says, be defeated, he says.

At this he becomes a Muslim.

From the polytheist commanders in the opposite ranks, they also deter our commanders, he says; he attacks at once, the one who became Muslim, that polytheist commander, they kill. At his death Khalid ibn al-Walid says, that man is not killed like that, he says, he is killed like this, he says, and takes his head too. That is, what I want to say is, in no battle was he defeated. I, he says, could not become a martyr. Poor Khalid, who could not become a martyr, he says. At least let me meet death standing, he says. He girds on his sword and so on. He girds on everything and meets death standing. From where he was lying. So martyrdom is that precious.

Martyrdom. Yes.

Yes.

One day his son Hasan asks his father. Ali's son. Hasan asks his father. Father, we see no other (?) who throws himself into danger among the ranks like this. You throw yourself into the ranks as if to be the first to taste martyrdom. When he says no warrior behaves like this, Ali gives Hasan this answer: My son, whether your father falls upon death, or death falls upon your father,

your father does not mind it, he said. That is, he does not care. Whether death falls upon his father or his father falls upon death. He sees no difference between them.

That is their love and passion for Allah, their longing for the hereafter. That is how the hereafter is longed for. So then, the Children of Israel, if they had been truthful, Allah Almighty would not have said to them, if you are truthful in your words, wish for death.

While living a life, the Prophet tells truthful and God-fearing people: do not wish for death. Staying one moment in the world is better than lying a thousand years under the earth, he says. Because these people staying in the world a moment, a moment longer, and their saying "Allah" accords with Allah Almighty's creation, do not wish for death, he says. Why did Allah Almighty create people? So that His essence would be known. His own will, He gave man's own will into man's own hand, and wished His essence to be known by man's own will. So, since a person saying "Allah" once while in worldly life accords with Allah Almighty's purpose of creation, they have obeyed Allah Almighty's command. For this reason too, people who commit suicide, since it goes against Allah's command, their funeral prayer is not performed.

Yes.

Why did Allah create us? He created us so that His essence would be known. He created us so that His essence would be known. If these created people say "Allah" once in this world, remember Allah and invoke Him, they accord with Allah Almighty's will in creating, and that is why the Prophet says: do not wish for death. People who love Allah do not fear death, if you love Allah. Death is an inn's gate where all of us will stop. All of us will stop there. This is inevitable. Every soul shall taste death. And finally your return is to Allah, it says. So people who love Allah, people in love with and longing for Allah do not fear death.

They do not flee from it. They do not flee from death; they submit to the command of the Truth. So those people who do not fear death are ready for death at every moment. With their worldly affairs, the work they do and undertake, their speech, their good deeds, their dealings with people, always seeking Allah's pleasure they go about their work, and so they are ready for death. Look at people.

Those who recognise no right or law fear death. Because if he dies, what will he say in the presence of his Lord? But those stripped of these, (?), pure. If they are people always in dialogue with others, always wishing them well, guiding them, praying good prayers for them, they stand ready for death.

Yes.

People who love Allah do not fear death. But are the Jews like that? As far as Allah Almighty has told us, even if they had the life, if they lived a thousand years more and never died. Living longer does not save a person from torment. In the verse where Allah Almighty says He knows the wrongdoers well, there is no event He does not know of. There is no event. Because, He says, there is not a single living being to come until the Day of Judgement about whom We do not know what they will not do.

In the verse where He says We are closer to you than your jugular vein, of course, if the Creator is Allah, and He gives a person his wish as destiny according to his desire and will, of course He will be closer to us than we are. Because what kind of destiny, what kind of covenant I gave, what kind of wish I have, I could not know. According to that wish, how, with what events I will meet, I cannot know that either; but since my Lord programmed all that is to come until the Day of Judgement according to those desires and wishes Himself, He knows. Yes. Since He is closer to us than we are, I can only know myself through the actual deeds I have done over time.

That is, I can say, so this was my destiny. I define myself. Whereas Allah Almighty is the one who knows what I and people will do until they die. For this reason He is closer to me than I am, and therefore He says: We know the wrongdoers well.

Yes.