Al-Baqarah 156: They are those who say “we are Allah’s servants and we will turn to Allah” when a calamity comes upon them.

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 156.

They are those who, when a calamity comes to them, submit and say: We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.

Who are these? They are those who. That is, these are believers who have passed beyond the nafs al-ammara, passed beyond the nafs al-lawwama, passed beyond the nafs al-mulhima, and risen to the nafs al-mutmainna. Why do they speak so certainly? Because at the nafs al-mutmainna, too, they are people who have come to know the manifestations. They are believers. Some people do not even know the attribute of the believer. I came across it in a book: in one place it disparages the believer, puts him even below the nafs al-ammara. Right on the same page it raises the believer, (?) above the nafs al-ammara.

You say this here and that there, my good man. He is not true to any of his words. Aren't you ashamed to write it like this on the same page? (?) Yes. When a person does not know the truth, this is how he makes up lies. If I do not know the truth. Surah Al-Fajr, verses 27, 28, 29, 30. What does Allah Almighty say in these verses? O soul that has found rest! Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing; enter among My servants, enter My Paradise — the soul He addresses so. The soul at rest. They are those who — there is a pointer there. Those people. Set apart now, you see. From a group. Which group?

Within Islam, Muslim, but people who have reached a certain level, come to know the manifestations in this world, attained the attribute of believer. That is, people whose heart has (?). What does it say? Allah Almighty in His verse: do not be with the dead. He does not mean going to the dead in their graves. People whose heart has not (?), has not found life. Sleepwalkers. Yes. So those people. We... what do they say? We shall return to Allah. What does Allah Almighty say in His verse?

Every soul shall taste death, and to Me is your return, He says. Your return is to Me. So if we look closely at the verses, see, it does not say every soul will die. Every soul shall taste death, and to Me is your return. Then what is death? Death is upon our bodies. Spirit, nafs and soul are one; the flesh is separate. Doesn't Yunus Emre say so too? Souls are not to die, he says; bodies are to die. So if spirit, nafs and soul are one and the flesh separate, when He said We give you life twice and death twice, the deaths are upon the flesh, upon the bodies; upon spirits there is no death. When the body dies, that spirit tastes that death, that nafs tastes that pain of death.

Sir, in the hereafter the spirit will not taste the pain of death again. The reason: when spirits are paired, when spirit and body come face to face, why will it not enter the body? Because the spirit, being strong, could make the body speak as it wishes, as in the world. So Allah Almighty says, when you come to My presence with a driver, body and spirit, when spirits are paired, when they come face to face, I will seal your mouths, bind your feet and make your hands speak. What does the spirit say? Why are you speaking against me? A verse.

What does the body say? My Lord makes me speak, the One who makes speak, my Lord, makes me speak, it says. After the testimony is over — after the body's testimony against the spirit is over — you are returned to the One who first created you, He says. So there is no death upon spirits. If spirits were mortal, Allah Almighty would be mortal too. Since He gave man a part of it, if spirits endure in Paradise and Hell, they endure endlessly, forever.

But those short-headed, short-minded people who do not understand what I say think us to be (?) of the unity of existence (wahdat al-wujud). Of course, what I say has nothing to do with the unity of existence. All of it corresponds to knowledge matching a verse.

Let us come to our lesson. This was a preface. We said we would open up what we have written for you sentence by sentence. Since the commentary is for the public, for the public. We wrote it so that everyone understands. But we are opening these up sentence by sentence. Those who are patient with what comes from Allah are those who, of the resurrection after death, on the Day of Judgment, of being called to account at the Supreme Court — that it is true — know with certainty. With certainty. If you pay attention to the words: who knows with certainty — here we mean people who have come to know the manifestations.

We are saying it in code, in code.

You know how a person says, my spirituality is very strong. Go tell someone else that your spirituality is strong. His knowing a little something, his faith being a little strong, makes him think himself a person of spirituality; he calls it strength of spirituality. Look, what is spirituality? As the name says, it comes from meaning, mana. What is mana? A person grasps the realm of the hereafter in his own mind. Right? He has not seen it, yet he grasps it. When one says spirituality, this has grown strong — through what? Through unveiling, Allah Almighty showing him those worlds. Who are these? Scholars and saints.

Are you at that station too, that you say your spirituality is strong? You may say my faith is strong, fine. That too only up to a point. Besides, if that faith had become strong, you would be a person of spirituality too.

Yes, so when I say they know with certainty, these are people who have come to know the manifestations, who know the realm of the hereafter as they see this outward world with these eyes today. Knowing that Allah is the owner of all this created wealth and command, that they cannot take even a speck to the hereafter, drawing in their heart the sword of la against all these creations — he saw it, didn't he, he understood that it is all passing. He understood that one day he will leave this world and that nothing, not even for us, can be taken to the hereafter, and he grasped for what purpose he came to this world. He took on the responsibility of his worldly and otherworldly duties, but without letting the world's existence into his heart, working within the existence of the realm of the hereafter, he draws in his heart the sword of la against this world. There is none, he says.

None. In the world. One of them even says: after saying la, look whether anything is left. After saying none, is anything left? If you say none now, none. Is anything left in nothingness? Except Allah, all of it is gone. Rejoice, O lover, no partner is left to the Truth, it is over, he says.

Yes. That is how you will draw the sword of la in your heart. And you will know that you came to this world as a means. Within this means you will grasp your duties; to make you grasp your duties, Allah Almighty sends before you the noble books, the rulings, the scholars. What do we say first to you? Knowing that Allah is the owner of all this created wealth and command, that they cannot take even a speck to the hereafter, drawing the sword of la in the heart against all these creations, that is, falling into a nothingness, they keep Allah Almighty, the owner of these beings, alive in their hearts.

In their hearts they keep Allah Almighty alive. Now, what is this like? Take your heart to be a ship sailing on the sea. You are on the ship. Your life is there. But the ship and the sea are on the earth. So take your body to be this world. (?) Take it as a ship. Within that ocean, within the ocean, within that ocean, you are with your Lord. But in the realm of the heart.

Outwardly you are with people. In the realm of the heart you are with your Lord. So whether this world's torment and suffering or its pleasure and joy, both are one for you.

Because he does not look at this world with real eyes. If you go to someone's house as a guest, its goods and property do not concern you; he knows he is a guest there, you look neither at its plenty nor its lack; in the end you pass on and go. But the state of those (?) in the world is different, and the state of those who keep Allah alive in their hearts is likewise different. We too are in a guesthouse here; its plenty and its lack do not affect us.

What is a person's provision? What he eats, drinks and wears out. The rest is inheritance left behind. Inheritance. So if I earn this inheritance, so as to leave it to those after me, without asking whether it is lawful or unlawful, if I gather it,

Allah Almighty says in His verse: death is real, inheritance is lawful. The pain of that inheritance which stays lawful for the one after me — on the Day of Judgment, while I writhe in that pain, my family, enjoying themselves, eat it lawfully, sir, and if they earn reward by spending it, the real owner cannot grasp how this wealth and property benefit you. Why do I earn wealth?

Whoever strives in Allah's way with their wealth and their lives, He says. With their lives the martyrs, and with their wealth the people who believe in Allah strive in Allah's way with their wealth. In this case, I will leave my wealth to my family, I will gather it without asking lawful or unlawful, and while I suffer its torment in the hereafter, the other will be enjoying its pleasure. Did I create my children, my family? Did my mother and father create me? All of us are servants of Allah. In the realm of Lahut, Allah Almighty created all our spirits. In the realm of Lahut. There (?) made a covenant, raised us to the barzakh.

To send the spirit whose time has come from that realm of barzakh to the world, He made mother and father the means. At the very beginning He created our father Adam in Paradise, gave him our mother Eve as a wife, set up the first human factory. And in sending them to the world, so that He could send the spirits He had first created in the barzakh to an unseen world, He brought us forth from Adam, our father. Otherwise neither our father Adam created us, nor our mother, nor our father. All of us are servants of Allah. So if all of us will give account in Allah's presence, while I suffer the punishment for the wealth I leave behind, if I leave it lawful to my children, my family, and they enjoy themselves on the other side, what kind of enjoying wealth is this?

One must be wise. One must think well. Yes, you will leave wealth to your children, leave it to your family. In that wealth Allah Almighty gave you, those children have a right too. If you spend it on yourself, you will have destroyed those children's right too. What did we say? You will know your responsibility within the verses. Within the verses. But you will earn it lawfully, earn it with your own strength. Solomon had eaten food of Paradise; Gabriel (peace be upon him) comes to Solomon and says, shall I tell you of a food more delicious than this food of Paradise? He says, O my big brother, this is food of Paradise, can there be a food more delicious than this? There is, he says: a food you earn with your own hand and eat is more delicious than the food of Paradise, he says.

Solomon (peace be upon him) wove baskets and sold them, and with the money he got ate of his provision. So what is provision? What you eat and drink and wear out in the world; what you eat and wear out is your provision. The rest is inheritance left behind. Inheritance. This is provision. So earn your provision lawfully. Your provision. If Allah guarantees everyone's provision, if He will feed them throughout their life, give them food and drink, if Allah guarantees your provision, earn it lawfully, lawfully. Never resort to the unlawful. Do not lie, do not cheat a brother, do not slander him.

Yes.

Even if they suffered torment and hardship in their worldly lives, even if they were drowned in all kinds of afflictions, according to Allah Almighty's verse, We do not put on your backs what you cannot bear, they, being patient with what comes from Allah, in this world they came to for only a short, passing time, accepting what comes from Allah — to gain the everlasting life. To attain the bliss Allah promised, while living in this world they say — O Allah, who are these? Those who, He says. That is, people at that rank. O Allah! We are those who submit to every affliction that comes from You.

You do not put on our backs what we cannot bear. We are pleased with You in every case. And You be pleased with us, O Allah, they say.

Yes.

Sooner or later. We will surely taste death. All beings will be returned to Him. They will return to Allah Almighty Himself. On that day of reckoning, to those who could not gain Your pleasure, who could not accept what comes from You, who turned away from You — woe to them. That is, those who trade the hereafter for this world, who say, who said there is another world, the hereafter; who say, who has been brought back to life? show me anyone who came back to life — those who with their little minds, their wretched minds, drag themselves to ruin, woe to them. Why woe? Those who cannot see so much provision given to them, who cannot see that they were created furnished with knowledge, and who cannot think and grasp that nothing can come together by chance — those wretched people.

Denying Allah, caught by the alluring look of this world, by the stirrings of the nafs, following Satan's tracks, those who turn their backs on Allah — woe to them.

O Allah, from the terror of that day, taking refuge in You, the Judge of judges, during the life of this world, we have said: grant us to be gathered with Your friends who have gained Your pleasure and become the guardians of those people, and to be taken into Your divine presence — so we have said.