Al-Baqarah 152: Remember Me so that I will Remember you (with My mercy). Be thankful for the provisions I have given, so that you don’t be inclined towards blasphemy by being ungrateful.

Yes, to verse 152 of Surah Al-Baqarah we have come.

So remember Me, and I will remember you. Be grateful for My blessings, do not be ungrateful to Me, He says. Well, what does He say? Remember Me, and I will remember you.

Whoever, He says, mentions Me in a gathering, I mention him in a better gathering than that. Whoever comes to Me walking, I go to him running, He says. Whoever mentions Me within himself, I mention him within My being, He says. How beautifully He says it. Yes.

Now look what Allah Almighty says to people in the verse: after knowing Me and recognizing Me this much, now remember Me. That is, what does dhikr mean? Do not bind your heart to anyone but Allah, and beware, ask nothing from anyone but Allah. Your needs, your wishes and desires, make them known to Me constantly. Since these wishes and desires of people never end, their constant turning to Allah is their remembering Allah. Plus, people remember their Lord. With what? He says Allah, Allah, Allah; he makes dhikr. He says La ilahe illallah, la ilahe illallah, la ilahe illallah; he makes dhikr. That is, there is no god but Allah.

Remember Me, He says.

With your worship, with the trade you do in your daily life, following the Sharia I sent, within My commands, remembering Me at every moment, remember Me, so that I mention you in My being. What does He say? Allah Almighty: I have such servants that neither buying and selling nor trade keeps them from remembering Me, He says. So then, should this man keep saying Allah, Allah, Allah and not do any business? No. Those people can't know what they haven't lived. I am a grocer. I sell goods to my customer. An example.

Almost always, as it were, we remember Allah: this person's rights, his due, we will respect. To him, sir, we will give the goods, his goods, in the lawful way. We will take the money that is its value. Or else we will give goods in return for their value. And constantly keeping in view, between Allah and me, the dealing to be done with him, I will act. That is remembering Allah. I have such servants that neither buying and selling nor trade keeps them from My remembrance. That is, in every sale, every purchase, every trade he observes the right. He observes the other's right. He fears Allah. In his work he remembers the account he will give his Lord.

That is the dhikr. This is dhikr. And he is always in such self-reckoning. These are the people in this high station.

Whoever remembers Allah this way, Allah too in His being mentions him. Look, He even says: To My servant who, from remembering Me, cannot present his need to Me, I give more than his need, He says. I give him. So it is. I have lived this. I am living this too, anyway. I feel shy to present my need to Allah. Because He is closer to me than I am. I know the secrets in your heart that you don't know, He says. So I feel shy to present myself to my Lord. And I don't hold back from remembering Him.

And Allah Almighty opens the doors of the unknown upon me. Yes. He never leaves us wronged. If I said, my Lord, set up a ladder to the moon so I can climb to the moon, I would climb.

He would grant that too. But we say nothing idly. Not easily. From our own head.

A certain man, a certain hodja, had trained students. Son, he said, if you say this, you will go over the water and back. One of the students says it and goes over the water and back. He saves the money he would have paid for the boat. He says: with this money I saved, I (?) my hodja once more. Hodja, he says, you are our guest tonight. All right, I'll come, son, he says. They come to the bank of the stream. They are going to cross. The boy, off he goes, crossing over. Hodja, come on! Well son, he says, (?) I'm waiting for the thing, he says. I'm waiting for the boat, he says. Sir, hodja, when you told us that, we go like this, he says.

Son, he says, the mouth is that mouth, but, he says. The words are those words, but, he says. The mouth is not that mouth, he says. That is, the person is someone who does not match what he says. What will happen? This man may have become good, but he has not reached a certain rank; his faith has not grown strong yet. Yes, so such a dhikr is needed that, such a dhikr, through that dhikr a person truly turns to the Truth; and unless, with that devotion, he is ready to give up his life, he cannot reach that station.

With the good deeds and alms you do for My sake, I too will protect you from accidents and calamities. Let Me increase My favor upon you. The rewards you receive in return for the good deeds you do, multiplying them, let Me exalt you, says (?) Allah Almighty. He will increase His bounty to people. Do good deeds, He says, you. Yes.

With this verse Allah Almighty, the value He gives people, how beautifully He expresses. Allah Almighty, who needs nothing, who placed His creation at people's command, who holds them as His addressees, our Lord says: you remember Me, and I will remember you.

What does remembering mean? That servant's every wish and desire within his destiny, the word that comes out of that person's mouth, so as not to make him a liar, granting it to him. Isn't that so, Suat? When something comes out of a person's mouth, it surely (?), he says. Yes.

Of nothing in need, Allah Almighty, who placed His creation at people's command, who holds them as His addressees, our Lord says: you remember Me, and I will remember you. Allah Almighty: in My sight, what I created other than man has no value.

All created things were created for people. So man has become the vicegerent of the earth, the vicegerent. Everything has been put at man's command. And people who remember Allah Almighty in their own being, by their own wishes and desires, people who remember Allah by their own aims, are of course valuable in Allah's sight. The others Allah Almighty has programmed; the state of creatures run by that program, and the state of a person who knows Allah of his own accord, can they be the same? Can this be compared with them? Therefore man: Lekad halaknel insane fi ahseni takvim. I created man in the most beautiful form, He says; man, the noblest of creation.

Yes.

I have held no being other than man as an addressee of My being. True. If you grasp the value I give you and remember Me, I will mention you in My being, He says. The (?) of being human: only by people acting according to Allah's commands is it possible. And this is possible only by applying the flawless law and order that such a Creator has laid down, He says.

There is one letter too many here; let's delete that too.

Be grateful for My blessings, do not be ungrateful to Me. Allah Almighty, who gives people so much value, who holds them as His addressees, in return for the former expects some things from people too. If a person helps a person, surely he expects some things from him too. Someone says: does Allah Almighty, like man, need some things then? He expects the return for His will in creating man. What is it? He willed that man know His being, and that man, knowing his Lord, does the duty of servanthood to Him; He wants that. What does it say in the verse? If not for your worship, what would We do with you?

Yes.

The only thing Allah Almighty expects from people is that they recognize their Creator. That is, Allah Almighty; people being created so exalted, furnished with knowledge, given feelings, such a peerless being acting heedless of itself surely grieves Allah Almighty. How beautifully, to man every possibility granting, offering every blessing, every sustenance providing, protecting them from every evil, toward Allah Almighty, if man turns his back on Him, of course at some point Allah Almighty is grieved.

Like what? Like when a father feeds his child, gives him drink, nourishes him, and that child rebels against the father. Wouldn't the father be grieved? He would. So Allah Almighty too, among His creation, if these people turned their backs on Allah, He too, grieving, sends them to the place they deserve. It is not: you are an unbeliever, off you go. And this doesn't mean revenge on you or me. Still He grieves. How do we know it is so?

If only, He says, they had known Me here. That is, in the world of the hereafter. If only they had known here. That is, if at least for a while you had known Me as Allah, and for what you did you had seen a little punishment and come out, and you too had attained My paradise, wouldn't that have been fine? Such destinies, for such wishes and desires, such characters were given. Those characters will never know Allah. Because He gave everyone their own aim. That is the partial will, irade-i cüz'iye. Know this well. Irade-i cüz'iye. In man. That is, judging by one's own wishes and desires. Judging. What do some say?

Judgment belongs to Allah alone. No: the judgment is mine; as long as I live, the judgment is my judgment; the judgment of the living is the judgment, not Allah's judgment. You blame Allah, look, like this; it is not Allah's judgment. But those short- minded ones say: the deviant is talking again. Look, now, of those who say he talks deviantly, let's open the horizons a bit: what is irade-i cüz'iye? It is the decision people make within their own will. Isn't this a judgment? Well, I will write the good you did. When He says I will write the evil too, when He says what you earned is the return of your two hands, when He says that, is this Allah's judgment upon me, or the judgment of the decision I made ? You have a mind, your mind. If it were not your judgment, if this had been Allah Almighty's judgment upon you, what would Allah Almighty want from you?

Is your strength enough to oppose Allah's judgment?

Think about this well. Don't make careless decisions. On that day judgment belongs to Allah alone; think well about the verse. On that day judgment belongs to Allah alone. Don't drop that day and say judgment belongs to Allah alone. Don't ascribe attributes to Allah. On that day judgment belongs to Allah alone. Which day? When the Last Day breaks out and the Great Court is set up. Now, today, He says, judgment is Mine alone. Because He has neither spouse nor partner. On that day judgment is His alone. No one can say another word then. Because, facing what they did, Allah Almighty, the Judge of judges, by what people did, will give His judgment.

That is when judgment is Allah's. Don't mislead people by applying what you wrongly know to those short minds.

Yes.

People being immersed in so many blessings from their Lord, their eating, drinking, and being provided every sustenance, and people, forgetting so much (?) they benefit from, turning away from Allah; surely it befits neither that person, nor humanity, nor such a morality. So giving thanks for the blessings Allah gave exalts a person in Allah's sight. Yes.