Al-Baqarah 141: They were a nation who came and have gone. What they have earned is theirs, what you earn is yours. You will not be asked about what they have done.

Twenty to ten. Twenty to ten. Yes. This is Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 141, let us complete it. After that, if needed, if they ask questions, once the verse is finished I can answer their questions. What did we say? Every person comes to this world to play the covenant he gave in the pre-eternal barzakh as an actor. In the first barzakh, when Allah Almighty said 'I am your Lord', our Lord, who wrote those people's wishes and desires, their aims, for them as destiny, being free of imperfect attributes, sends man to the material world and, in a world of the unseen, now commands him to believe in Him.

In this world, when people come to this world, actually there, that aim was written for him as a script. That person's destiny, written as a script, settles in him as character traits. Those traits, Allah Almighty, according to the actual deeds those people carry out, creates words and makes him a witness against himself. Makes him a witness before those around, a witness before Himself.

Actually the script was written there, its writing became the person's destiny, and in this world, within his lifetime, he plays the script written for him as an actor. In the verse where Allah Almighty says 'they were a community that has passed', every person, according to the covenant he gave, in this world that Allah Almighty calls the unseen world, where He is not seen, making himself a witness before those around through his actions, at the end of his life passes on to the hereafter. So every person has a lifespan of his own.

Now, while I was in the army, someone asked me. 'Hodja,' he says, 'the people of old lived 300 years, 150 years, 250 years, 400 years. Isn't this lifespan too short for us?' he says, Hodja. 'This life of ours is short. Why don't we live a bit longer?'

So I began to explain to him that Allah Almighty created us, then said to us 'I am your Lord', and that for those who obeyed there and those who did not, within their own destinies, their wishes and desires were written for them as aims, that is, their aims were written as destiny. So, I said, how does a lifespan come about here? Lifespan.

According to his wishes and desires, this person will prove himself in this world in how many breaths. Allah knows this. (?) his aim, his wishes and desires, you know, for him He writes them as destiny, as character traits, He engraves the traits, you know; these traits, over time, within these breaths, in how much time he will bring out these traits of his, and within these traits this person, by carrying them out in his actual deeds, will prove what kind of person he is. Allah knows this. He gives him that many breaths, I said, as his lifespan. Once that number of breaths is over, the person has proven what kind of person he is and passes on to the hereafter.

If this number of breaths were a little more or a little less — in this world, say he spent his whole life obedient to Allah, and that number of breaths were extended by 3-5 breaths, 10 breaths, 50 breaths, and meanwhile he fell into doubt and went into denial. What happened? He stepped outside his own character. Or he spent his whole life rebellious, in denial, and his character is that of a denier, but in these 50 or 100 breaths he thinks, 'is there really a God, is this Allah?' and turns back — what happened? He too stepped outside his own destiny. So, Allah Almighty, that number of breaths, the moment the last breath is given, is the complete end of his traits.

It is the breath of the last wish and desire of his aim. There, his life is over. Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? There, he has proven himself, and those breaths are over. There is not a breath less or more for him. Not less, not more. So this is how a lifespan comes about for a person: within his own covenant and aim, that aim he asked of Allah Almighty, within the traits written and given to him, in how many breaths his actual deeds will be carried out. Why the number of breaths and not time? Now, if we say time: a person, by living a stressful life, in drink, gambling or adultery, here and there in bad deeds, in theft, in shameful deeds, in swampy, dark affairs, or when he works, when he falls ill, his breath often gets choked.

For instance, he smokes; smoking, they say, shortens a person's life by five to ten years. True, it shortens it. Why does it shorten it? The pores in his lungs, the pores get clogged. This person breathes in and out rapidly, and by breathing rapidly he uses up his life quickly. So it got shorter, but the number of breaths is the same. The number of breaths is the same. So what is the number of breaths? Say, for instance, I take seventy thousand breaths a day. If I am healthy, I will take seventy thousand breaths a day. I will breathe seventy thousand breaths in and out healthily. If my breathing is rapid, I will breathe eighty thousand breaths in and out a day, and every day ten thousand breaths will be taken off my life.

Or five thousand breaths will be taken off my life. This is how healthy living lengthens or shortens life. Otherwise, life neither lengthens nor shortens. By what measure? By the number of breaths. But in terms of time it lengthens and shortens.

I suppose that is clear.

In the verse where Allah Almighty says 'they were a community that has passed', every person, according to the covenant he gave, in this world that Allah Almighty calls the unseen world, where He is not seen, making himself a witness before those around through his actions, at the end of his life passes on to the hereafter. His task is done. Yes. Those communities came. That is, those people came. Can you deny it? 'Hodja, when our Lord made the covenant, how old were we in terms of mind?' he asks, yes. Now, those communities came. Can you deny this? You cannot. Those communities passed. Since people all came from one another's loins, if you say such a community never came, you would be denying your own existence, while you are alive.

Your own being is alive. It all comes from their loins. People come from the backs of people. Yes. Those communities came. They themselves, to Allah Almighty (?). They made themselves witnesses before Allah and those around them, and went. They made witnesses of those around them and of themselves, and went. Now? Now it is our turn. They went. Where? With the good and the bad they did, with their spiritual earnings in this world, that is, their good deeds and sins, they took up their load. As Yunus Emre said, his horse was saddled and he went to the other side.

These. Now how beautifully Allah Almighty says it. They were a community that has passed. O people, now it is your turn. Look, everyone comes to this world; since no one is everlasting in this world, they complete their lives and pass on. And since I sent Adam, your father Adam, down to the world, I have been addressing you too. And I will address you until the Day of Judgment. Look, see that I am (?), eternal and pre-eternal, says Allah Almighty. I am your Owner, your Creator. So, so use your minds. Now those communities passed from this world. If they earned sins, look what they will say in the hereafter, He says.

Send us back to the world once more. See how we will worship You. And what does Allah Almighty say? If We sent you back to the world not once but several times, you would do the same again. Why would we do the same? Because those worlds will be closed again. Again, within our own traits, we will want our own wishes and desires. Even if we came not once but thousands of times, we would do the same again. So, O man, He says, O man, I have closed your future to you. You know nothing of the future even one second ahead. Look, before you are the traces of your forefathers, of past peoples, and with what they did, their good and their sins, their good deeds and their sins, they departed this world.

Now it is your turn. Do not be like those who, as sinners, deny Allah, the idolaters, those who associate partners with Allah, those who, to the books and prophets Allah sent, turn their backs and reject them, and who deify their own nafs. (?), come to your senses, He says. What does He say? Look. Those communities came. They came. They made themselves witnesses before Allah Almighty and those around them, and went. Now it is our turn. Ours. We too, according to the covenant we gave, will make ourselves witnesses before those around us and Allah Almighty and go. Yes. What each earns is his own.

The good and evil the earlier communities earned is theirs, and what we earn, good or evil, is ours. No one is held responsible for what anyone else did. Because each person, within his own wishes and desires, had his own aim written by Allah Almighty as his destiny. He did not take Ahmet or Mehmet as witness. Nor did he do anything together with them. Everyone made a covenant with Allah Almighty one by one, one to one. The deeds a person has done, that is, his actual actions, are asked of him. They are not asked of anyone else. Yes.