Al-Baqarah 160: But those who make repentance and better themselves and proclaim the truth are different. I will accept their repentance. I am Tawwab (the One who accepts repentance) and Raheem (the One who very generously accepts repentance).

In our lesson we have come to Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 160. Except those who repent and set their state right and openly make the truth known. Except. Karahan, look how fine, now we've come to the question. We've come to the question. What does Karahan say here? The curse of all people (?), and the Almighty accepts from such people neither their repentance nor their justice and witnesses. So it was wrong. What is a hadith? A hadith is the speech of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in line with the verses. So when people say about us, this man denies the hadith, they reveal that they are poor souls who know nothing of hadith, with their own mouths.

What are they doing? Poor souls who know nothing of the hadiths, saying he denies the hadiths. What is not hadith, poor souls who know it as hadith. I call them poor souls, because by these (?) they have been bound. And our son Karahan here, how nicely, at the end of that Farewell Sermon, writings like these attributed to the Prophet, how nicely he has brought them and put them here. Why did he put them? Now, what did I tell you? Keep listening to me. You will see the mistakes of the people to come, or of those so-called greatest hodjas they have made great in their eyes. And you will sift out the superstitions.

So when they say this hodja doesn't have books read, when we have Allah's Book read, how people, bound by the religion of Islam, are (?) from superstitions — they now understand that, I suppose.

Now they understand. I'm not saying this only because he (?) us like this. That is over and done. People are all like this. Most are like this. Most are like this. They have all swallowed these like this. Look what the verse says now. Except those who repent, set their state right and openly make the truth known. For I accept their repentance. I am the One who much accepts repentance, the Most Merciful, He says. Given that He did not accept repentance, is this a hadith now? According to the verse. Their repentance would not be accepted, even with justice, they say. Just look at that.

If their repentance were not accepted, people who fought against Islam, who shed Muslim blood, would not have repented, shed polytheism, come to Islam and taken the title of Companion. Yes.

Listen carefully. No one can define Allah Almighty and the Prophet (peace be upon him) with attributes, nor can they fit them into their minds.

We read the verse again. Except those who repent, set their state right and openly make the truth known. For I accept their repentance. I am the One who much accepts repentance, the Most Merciful, says Allah Almighty. People were not created free of error. There is no human being without error.

Every human errs. And look what Allah Almighty says. If you were seized at once for the errors you have made, you would not find a single living thing moving on earth. So now, according to these verses, what they tell as hadith from the Farewell Sermon in Karahan's last sentences — do they agree with each other? Impossible. And when we say these are not hadith, they say this man even denies the hadiths. They expose their own shame.

I speak with the verses.

As a saint said, I don't speak with words. And that saint puts it so well. A person who submits everything to his own reason is like someone on a prosthetic leg. What he did yesterday, he sets about changing today, he says. Yes. We are not legless people on prosthetic legs. We speak with Allah's verses. But those who know nothing of the verses, sleepwalkers,

if they see something somewhere and it pleases their mind, they say how nice. We have no knowledge, after all. So he accepts it like that. So, people were not created free of error. There is no human being without error. Whether by human nature or because of the environment he is in. People may have gone against Allah Almighty's commands and prohibitions by mistake. A true human is one who, with the error he made, returns to Allah and takes refuge in Allah Almighty's pardon and forgiveness. That is a human. What is it? He will say: My Allah, You did not create people free of error. We are error.

Yes, I saw, now I heard and understood. I did this wrongly, forgive me. Or I rebelled against You, I have no other door to go to but You, forgive me — when you say that, is it possible that Allah would not forgive you? If Allah had not forgiven you, Allah Almighty would be ascribed a quality. Like us humans — you killed ten men, you killed a hundred men, your (?), go, get away from us — Allah does not say that to a person. So what does He say? What does He say? Come now, have you repented? You have. I will forgive you. For that one person, to the people he killed and slew, He gives until they are content with him. As long as that one person knows his Lord.

Why had Allah Almighty created us? So that His Self be known. If I killed people by mistake, not a hundred but thousands, if I made this mistake with my short reason, unknowingly, and then repented, and Allah did not accept my repentance, Allah would be ascribed a quality. Why would He? He created me with an incomplete mind. He created me flawed. Then I would say (?). This was not my nature. I did it wrongly. The mind wasn't given. I did this. But now I have turned to You. There is nowhere else to go. If You don't forgive me, who will forgive me? Is there any door other than You?

So our Lord creates man incomplete and waits for him to err and return to his Lord for pardon and forgiveness. Here is a hadith of the Prophet: even if your sins reached the clouds in the sky, when you repent with a sincere heart Allah Almighty turns those bad deeds of yours into good deeds. You might put a question like this to me. Well, what about the rights of these thousands of people?

Allah Almighty sent people to this world to hold them as witnesses over themselves. They are not lasting in this world. Allah Almighty sent people to this world to earn the hereafter from it. Those people, those people in the hereafter: My Allah, what kind of person was this? These slew us. We were wronged in the world. Our families were wronged. Let me put it this way, now when they say so at this great station or in such a place, yes. It was as you say. But he returned. That one soul was saved. One soul was saved from hell. Now what do you want? I will give you what you want, He says. Allah Almighty gives until they are content with him.

There is the attribute Tawwab, you know, Tawwab. Allah Almighty, who much accepts repentance. Who much accepts repentance. He is not vengeful like us, you see. When a (?) happens to us, I'll go and kill him too. Allah doesn't do that. We are all servants Allah created. Imagine a father. If he had thousands of children, thousands, and among these children there were tyrants who committed many crimes, and rebelled against their father, and the father being a king, he even rose against his army, and in the end knelt and came before his father, would that father not forgive him? Would he have his head cut off?

If this one, a mere human, shows that mercy to his child, Allah Almighty, who sent one percent of His mercy to the earth, who through man willed that His Self be known, created them with an incomplete mind, and with their errors waits for them to return to Him, Allah Almighty, ninety-nine percent on the Day of Judgment — Allah Almighty, who keeps ninety-nine percent of His mercy for Himself for the Day of Judgment — would He reject that person when he returns to Him? Is this possible? This is Allah. Yes.

What do we say? Returning to Allah with the error he made, he takes refuge in Allah Almighty's pardon and forgiveness. That is a human. Realizing that the crimes they had hidden were wrong and that they had erred, and by telling people, they should help them too return to right and truth. That is: look, brother, I too once did such and such. I was ashamed before people, I did this like that. I hid it, thinking they would say this to me. I was hypocritical, I lied. But these were all words spoken in a time of ignorance, without knowing our Lord, from the whims of our nafs. We were caught up in ego, we followed Satan's footsteps.

So saying, he should tell those people what happened to him, his past, very well, together with his experiences, to the person before him and lead him too to guidance. Yes. So Allah Almighty to such people: for I am Tawwab. Those who turn to Allah, ask Allah for pardon and repent — it is impossible that I would not accept their repentance, He declares. Yes. What was Karahan saying? So were those hadith, my child? What does it say? Of such people neither their repentance nor their justice and testimony does He accept. They write according to people's rights. Then they call this hadith too. They say the Prophet said it in the Farewell Sermon.

And then they say this man denies the hadiths. Then we will write a refutation of him, they say. Whatever kind of refutation that is. Now I ask you, is what I say true or not? Am I not telling about Allah? Well, if I am telling about Allah and they write a refutation of me, in what kind of belief, serving which belief, will they write a refutation of a person who lives Islam?

Of one who lives Islam, who is bound by Allah's verses and who personally makes people love Allah — how a refutation can be written, I do not know. So it means they have a separate ideology, and within this ideology, that they cannot know the religion of Islam is brought to light. That is, it shows they cannot live Islam. Anyway, sixty percent of it, I'd say. Some is true; beside the truth, sites full of superstitions.

Some is true, and then it's full of superstitions.

It whips up people's selfish desires, this talk of mine. Talking this way. But a true human, I say human, look, a true human is one who knows the error he made and bows his neck. Bows his neck before Allah. Even saying, yes, I was wrong. So, enjoin what is right. That is, tell the truth, He says. I am telling the truth. If, while telling the truth, I stray outside the truth, then they too should enjoin what is right on me, explain, tell me, I mean. Hodja, you explained this part like this. Isn't this wrong? Let them say it. I'd be glad. I say it for Allah's sake, look. Why? I'm human too, after all.

Why did I set out? Why am I explaining? I'm not explaining to you out of a desire to be your leader. I explain to earn my Lord's mercy. So if I explain to earn my Lord's mercy and explain it wrongly, I become a sinner. So if you know the right, tell me. I will bow my neck.

If you too understand the right, bow your neck before your Lord. We are all responsible to Him. He is our Lord, who created us. We are each other's brothers. To bring each other to Allah, so that Allah is pleased with us, we are obliged to warn each other. Tomorrow, on the Day of Judgment, you will say: my Lord, this one knew and did not warn us. I tell you too. This one knew, I said it, my Lord. These knew, they did not warn me, I will say. If I say it, you will say it too. So if I explain wrongly, say: my hodja, you're explaining this part wrongly — to me. If I am telling the right, you, as our brother, and we, as Muslims, are obliged to bow our necks to Allah.

Our religion is not a (?) religion. We have no 'you and me'. Why not? Ego is from Satan. He slipped because of his ego. He slipped because of his pride and arrogance. He could not turn to Allah. So under the name Muslim, when we say I am a Muslim, I understand this at the first stroke. We are those who give up pride and arrogance and bow their necks. To whom? To Allah. We are not those who follow Satan's footsteps. So Islam means a person with bowed neck, surrendered to his Lord. Both try to live this meaning and also, with lies and errors, though Allah and His Messenger did not say it, say they said so, then oppose with selfish desire those who hand you the truth, and then don't accept the truth.

No, that won't do. That is following Satan's footsteps. But we are not saying you do this. God forbid. How we should act in what may happen, that's what I'm saying. We are brothers. Turning back from a loss at any point is a gain. Since he said seek knowledge even if it is in China, wherever we find the truth we are obliged to take it. So that we attain our Lord's mercy. Yes.

Because Allah Almighty is the One who much accepts repentance. Those who ask Allah for pardon and repent — it is impossible that I would not accept their repentance, He declares. For there is no god but Allah to whom one could turn his face and ask pardon of. And the One God, Owner of the worlds, surely the one who returns to Him and does not make a toy of his repentance He forgives. Who does not make a toy of it. He knows anyway who makes a toy of it. What is this toy? With his tongue he (?) to Allah, his nafs and heart do again what they will, the same thing. Again with his tongue (?) to Allah, again his nafs and heart do the same.

He says it well with his tongue. He isn't even aware when he says it. (?) he has said it out of habit. But as they say, a creature of habit won't give up its habit; if their character is like that, he has made a toy of it. Again we say, a true human, if a word has left his mouth, keeps it. That is a human. Because the Prophet says: Adopt the character of Allah Almighty. Our Lord says in His verse: who is truer to his word than Allah? So if we are a will of our Lord, that is, if He created us to see us in His Self and gave us of His spirit, if we are to adopt our Lord's character, what kind of giving one's word is this?

What kind of people repent and then, unable to master their nafs, set about doing the same again?

What kind of people with will are these? Well, a person can't easily give up his habit. He repents. He does the same thing again. But his heart is by no means content with it. He did it out of habit. He repents again. Again, unwilling, he strives not to do it. After a few times he masters his nafs and doesn't do it again. These are the exception. Such people are the exception. When we say he made a toy of his repentance, he says it with his tongue; his heart and soul live in longing for it. He lives in longing for the error he made. These are the ones who make a toy of their repentance. Yes.

What does it say? In His verse where He says I am the One who much accepts repentance, the Most Merciful — He created no being more beautiful than man, and again no being other than man did He address as His counterpart. For this reason Allah Almighty loves people very much and, because He loves them, waits for them to repent for the errors they make. When these people understand their errors and turn in repentance to Allah Almighty, that Allah Almighty will accept their repentance, He openly declares in His verse. What does He say? I am the One who much accepts repentance and the Most Merciful, He says.

Yes.

We come to the next verse, within the same verse. He is the Merciful, the Protector, it says. Most merciful, most protecting. Because He created us with an incomplete mind. He willed that His Self be known. That's why He is most merciful, most protecting. We are like a child, at the level of a child. Like what? Imagine a five- or six-month-old child crawling on the floor. The mother and father fret over it. If the child heads for the stove, they block its way at once. One eye on the work, one eye on the child. If the child approaches the window, their heart leaps for fear it will fall. They go to it at once.

What are they doing? Sheltering and protecting it. Think of that child — as I said earlier, one percent of His mercy He sent to this world. Keeping 99 percent for Himself, with which He will judge His servants — just think how Allah shelters and protects.

So what does He say? He is the Merciful and the Protector. Because in a lifetime there is no unheard-of event or accident that does not befall people. Not one accident befalls you? In 70 years, in 50 years, do you go perfectly straight? If your life is to last until the end of those 50, 60, 70 years, then in 30, 40 years you have come nose to nose with death many times, but you were protected. So I too had a life span left. I was an aircraft technician. Two or three times we crashed in helicopters. My Lord, the Protector, protected me. I was protected. So it means I had life left. If I had none, I would have gone there.

So Allah Almighty protects people from the events within their lifetimes like this. So Allah Almighty, so that people can complete the life span He gave them within these lives, from many accidents and calamities protects them. A person does not notice this and know that it is from Allah. Why? He says, we fell, and look, we escaped like this there. He says it happened this way, that way. Whereas he still had life left. Within that life span he was protected by our Lord.

Now, Adnan Menderes, whom we all know, had a plane crash in England and came out of it alive. So he had life left. He had an accident there. The plane left the runway. So many events, I mean the ones we remember, these by our Lord — they are protected.

We have all been through many events. To give an example: I didn't notice at all, if I had taken one more step, I'd have ended up under the car, he says.

You look and whoosh, a car shoots past; you say, one more step and I'd have gone into the car, gone under it. Or in winter, you look, a piece of ice falls right in front of you. One more second, a bit further, and it would have (?) my brain. Or a flowerpot, bang, falls on your head, and that one dies. See, the time was up, the term was up. Doesn't it happen? A roof tile falls, he dies. Or it falls in front of them; these are our Lord's protections, He shows us these. He protects and shows these.

Or I heard a sound behind me; when I turned around, I saw that a (?) had fallen from above to the ground. Had I been a second late it would have fallen on my head. Being protected through events like this so that we can complete our lives is Allah Almighty's mercy toward us.