Al-Baqarah 108: Do you want to ask your Prophet suspicious questions such as those that Moses was asked? Whoever has traded belief for denial has gone astray in the middle of a straight road.

Like those asked of Moses, do you want to ask your Prophet doubtful questions too? Whoever exchanges faith for disbelief has strayed from the middle of the straight path. Allah Almighty, how beautifully He tells people His verses that hold until the Day of Judgement.

What does it say? Do you want to ask your Prophet doubtful questions too, like those asked of Moses? Whoever exchanges faith for disbelief has strayed from the middle of the straight path. As if this verse belonged only to that time? See how beautifully it says it. Even though you know the truth, are you trying, by asking the scholars We have raised doubtful questions,

to push them into suspicion?

Even though you know this is right, merely for the whims of your nafs do you want to exchange faith for disbelief? Yes.

(?)

How beautiful. Verses give a person life and verses support a person. People's support for people only goes so far. But this verse supports me.

This is our Lord's support for me. Come on, are you a prophet? Allah forbid. See what I said at the start? As if this verse belonged only to that time? That is, did it belong only to the Prophet?

By saying it to him, it is valid and binding for all who will come until the Day of Judgement, for the scholars he will raise. It holds. So you see, even though we explain the truth, those ruled by superstitions and falsehoods have turned their backs on the truth and are trying to join forces to defeat the truth. That is why one must be wise. These have strayed from the middle of the straight path. What is the straight path? The verses of Allah. See how beautifully Allah Almighty says it with His verses. How beautifully He explains it.

Moses' people used to ask him many questions.

The reason was that people constantly had doubts about Moses' prophethood. Indeed, had it not been so, when Moses went up Mount Sinai they would not have worshipped the idol the Samiri made. Allah Almighty commands that doubtful questions not be asked of the Prophet either: that he came confirming the prophets before him and the Torah, that a book full of miracles like the Quran stands before you leaving no room for doubt, that with the miracles the Prophet showed he confirmed that he is the true prophet; and still, with your hearts not at ease, will you ask questions?

Will you still ask questions? So, even though we have opened this many verses truthfully, even though we have explained the truth, will you still be in doubt?

Will you still hesitate? Are we telling of anything other than Allah here?

Yes. What did I say a moment ago? People's support only goes so far. But with this verse my Lord supports me, it says. Yes. Thanks be. He does not call anyone to account for a thing He has not made known.

Whoever exchanges faith for disbelief has strayed from the middle of the straight path.

Well, how was I to know that this is faith, you might say.

Allah Almighty gave us an intellect. The blessing of the intellect. Since this blessing of the intellect is able to distinguish crooked from straight, false from truth, people, with this blessing of the intellect, must know the truth.

I will call you to account because you did not use the intellect I gave you — according to that verse. So those who do not use their intellect, against what? Against their nafs. Those who follow the whims of the nafs, in this case, not using their intellect, since they make their own nafs their god, they do not turn to Allah properly and honestly. So, within this truth of faith, on the straight path, because they turn their backs on Allah's verses, they stray from the middle of the straight path.

Whoever exchanges faith for disbelief has strayed from the middle of the straight path. You too know that the Quran is the word of Allah and that before you it is a guidance. It is a light. And it is a perfectly straight path. Perfectly straight. That is the path of sirat al-mustaqim.

Not the Sirat bridge, mind you. The path of sirat al-mustaqim. A perfectly straight path. If you stray from it, then you fall into that hell (?). That is, after this it becomes a figurative bridge. The Sirat bridge comes in. Yes. That path of sirat al-mustaqim is a perfectly straight path.

If, out of your stubbornness, you (?) this straight path, you will have strayed from the middle of the straight path. After that you will have neither a helper nor a rescuer to be found.

On that path of which Allah Almighty says in His verses: what an evil way that is to go, that is, outside Allah's command, outside that sharia ruling, on evil paths, in alcohol, in gambling, in the forbidden, in violence, whatever it is, in various ideologies, outside the religion of Islam — what an evil way (?). On the path, not listening to Allah Almighty's commands and submitting to one's own selfish desires, on paths Allah Almighty does not want and has forbidden, as the plaything of Satan, people who live out their lives, who wander in swamps thinking they are living, who suffer misery and live their lives without peace.

Finally, when we are returned to our Lord, by the verse in which He says your return is to Allah, then, by the verse that says what an evil way that is to go, at the end of the road, on that day of reckoning when there is neither a friend nor a guardian to be found, being caught and thrown into hell in that hereafter from which there is no return, exchanging an eternal life for a perishable worldly life — is this not a person straying from the middle of the straight path? Yes. So how does a person stray from the middle of the straight path? Since Allah Almighty created the human intellect incomplete, a person may not understand some things.

Since Allah Almighty, in order to give life to His creation, does not will injustice to the worlds, although He holds (?) before people with His verses, the human nafs follows its whims, falls for Satan's seduction and follows his steps. The game the nafs plays on a person: making his own nafs his god, not giving it up, being drawn to the rosy appearance of the world and being with it, drags a person into disasters. Within those disasters, unrest; within that unrest, hatred, grief, anger, and after that, people being disgraced in swamps, thinking they are living, and after that, when he has used up a whole life, when he has finished a whole life, when the moment he says "alas" enters the road from which there is no return, on that day of reckoning he has neither a friend nor a guardian.

Allah Almighty's attribute Rahim is only for the believers, and when that attribute Rahim is lifted from them there, they are left all alone. So today, let us say it like this: those who run after the Antichrist calling it stardom, who strip people stark naked and put them on stages, and who, stripping them stark naked, for the passing world, so as to make use of them, speaking sweet words to them, use them like a rag.

In the end, those who turn this short life into that (?) life of the hereafter. I call out to such people like this: To those swamp stars that are called stars: will you be able to hold your hand to a candle flame?

When a small needle pricks your hand, will you be able to bear the pain?

Playing the fool for refinement in this world, stripping yourself stark naked and exhibiting yourself to people, will you be able to bear that torment of the hereafter?

The chance is in your hands. No matter how sinful you are, return to your Lord. Repent so that you find life. Find life. Yes.

Be saved from going along that path of which He says what an evil way that is to go. You are continuing on that path. You are leading the way in disbelief. You are overstepping Allah's limits.

I have turned 72.

To people it seems like a very long life. As a child it also seemed a long life to me. When I look back, I still remember the kids in the neighbourhood, and the stick games we played. As if I had not lived any life at all. You too, look back and you will think so.

I worked in many places, served in government offices. I retired. It is as if I had never lived a life. Do you know the reason for this?

A thousand years, one year, one day of the hereafter — one day of the hereafter is like a thousand years of this world. That is, sixty-five, seventy years is like an hour and a half, two hours. This confirms it. I am living it myself. So is it worth jumping here and there, running away, following the whims of the nafs, turning your back on Allah's verses, priding yourself on the whims of the nafs, being arrogant and walking on the path Allah does not want?

Yes.

So one must put an end to doubts. Believing in Allah's oneness and unity, moving forward on the bright paths He shows, one must take refuge in Allah's mercy. Because we said that besides Allah we have neither a helper, nor a friend, nor a guardian. Only then does a person reach salvation at the end of that straight path, and attain victory. That is, even if he went on that straight path drunkenly, even if he staggered, as long as he reaches the end of that road without somersaulting, his faith has protected him. He has been left to his Lord's mercy. Yes. What I want to say with this is: people are not free of error.

They can make mistakes. They can fall short. But on that straight path, in this staggering, within the staggering, with repentance and seeking forgiveness, when they reach the end of the road they attain our Lord's mercy. If a person exchanges faith for disbelief, that is, through the whims of the nafs, so that people say nice things to him, or sells himself to earn the money of the world — and what does Allah Almighty say about all of it? The inheritance of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. When he takes Allah's inheritance as if it were his own, that inheritance will remain to Allah, and he himself will eat and drink (?) in the world.

The rest is his pride, his arrogance, his vanity, his fame and glory. So those who make their nafs arrogant, who as people of fame and glory, Allah's creatures, and who learn, should not forget that one day in the presence of their Lord they will receive (?) torment. If a person exchanges faith for disbelief, that person believes nothing that comes from Allah.

This too is the meaning of verses.

Our sentences are all like this anyway. We say this as the meaning of the verses, corresponding to them. If a person has exchanged faith for disbelief, that person believes nothing that comes from Allah. Khatamallahu ala qulubihim wa ala sam'ihim wa ala absarihim ghishawah, wa lahum adhabun azim. Against the truth their ears are veiled and blocked, their eyes are veiled, and their hearts are sealed. When they hear the word of truth, it says, they come to a state in which the clouds in the sky would burst. But following their own selfish desires, taking pleasure in the ugliness Satan shows them, running after him, they spend their lives.

Such a person is one who exchanges the life of the hereafter for the life of this world. These are the ones who bring ruin on their own selves. Their own selves. What does Allah Almighty say in a verse? If only they knew for what evil thing they sold their souls, it says. What is it, that evil thing they sold their souls for? For money. For money, and with their own money at that. With fame and glory. If only you knew that with Allah's property you sold yourself to the fire of hell, it says.

O human, be wise. Use your intellect. The fire of hell is not like the fire of this world. It is such a fire that before its roar man goes down on his knees.