Al-Baqarah 211: Ask the sons of Israel: We have given them many clear miracles. Whoever alters Allah’s blessings (verses) after miracles come to them, they should know that Allah’s punishment is severe.

'Ask the Children of Israel' comes now; our Lord says: Ask the Children of Israel how many clear miracles We gave them. Whoever, after the miracles have come to him, changes Allah's blessings, that is, His verses, let him know that Allah's punishment is severe. Ask the Children of Israel, when He says that, He shows them as an example. The Children of Israel were made to work as slaves by Pharaoh. He gave the heaviest duties and jobs to the Children of Israel.

Down to sewer work, down to porter work, carrying loads, down to building the pyramids, he made them work at such jobs. And the wage he gave them was not even enough to make a living.

In this situation Allah Almighty, having mercy on them, sent them Moses, and Moses surviving was itself a miracle. What is the miracle of Moses surviving? When the astrologers told Pharaoh that a child would be born among the Children of Israel who would take his throne from him, he would kill their male children and spare the girls. In this situation, as Allah Almighty made it known to Moses, to Moses' mother, she makes a basket and has the basket left (?). He sends that basket to Pharaoh, its enemy. I mean not Allah's enemy, but the one hostile to that child, and the one who would take his throne, Moses, He has him raised by his own hands.

This, for our Lord, gives a miracle. Now, although Moses told (?) that Allah Almighty is Allah, that there is no god besides Him, that the path he was on was wrong, because of his disbelief He gave him many calamities. Blood, locusts, frogs, drought, many miracles. In this situation, every time he was struck by a calamity, Pharaoh said: I really believe, tell the Lord of Moses to lift it from us and I will do what you say. Once the calamities were lifted from them, Pharaoh would take the same path again.

So after this situation, the greatest miracle, well, all miracles are great, the Children of Israel, Moses brings them out of Egypt one night by the command of Allah Almighty. He comes to the Red Sea. At the Red Sea, sir, just as the king's army was about to catch the Children of Israel, by the miracle of Allah Almighty, Moses strikes the sea with his staff and it splits; and when Moses brought his people, the Children of Israel, across, He destroyed Pharaoh there, who plunged into the Red Sea with his army. It must be verse 90 of Surah Yunus. And His saying: today I will leave your lifeless body as a lesson to the worlds; in response to that, his lifeless body is found by the English and they take it to a museum.

90. What is in the verse?

We brought the Children of Israel across the sea, but Pharaoh and his soldiers followed them to oppress and attack. Finally, when he was about to drown in the sea, Pharaoh said: I too believe that there is truly no God but the God in whom the Children of Israel believe. I too am of the Muslims, he said.

The verse I mentioned is 92; verse 91 says try (?). Now you believe? Whereas before that you had been (?), it says. In verse 92: so that you may be a lesson for those who come after you, today We will save your body, lifeless. That is, We will display you until the Day of Judgment. Yes. Truly many of the people are heedless of Our verses, He says. Truly many of the people are heedless of Our verses.

This part is very meaningful.

Most people, what does He say? Many, many of the people, are truly heedless of Our verses.

Those who became Muslim by saying the shahada and yet live unaware of the verses, the heedless ones, their faith protects them. That is, their intentions. Deeds depend on intentions. Their intentions protect them. The others, since they deny anyway, are truly heedless too. In this situation people are truly heedless of the verses. They try to fit the verses to their own reason. Here they give it this meaning. On the other side they give another meaning, in another verse. Contradiction arises between the verses. Then it saves people, their faith. (?) from this. Allah Almighty said so, but he doesn't believe himself anyway.

Because there is a contradiction. There is reason, too. But because he learned it that way, sir, he believes it that way and glosses over it. He does not want to dwell on that verse either. So these, in this way, in this way, drifted away from the verses. Superstitions entered religion. Whereas had they known the subtleties of the verses, a person would turn his life, in peace, into a festive atmosphere. Yes. So, ask the Children of Israel, He says. Ask how many clear miracles We gave them. Yes. Whoever, after the miracles have come to him, changes Allah's blessings, His verses, let him know that Allah's punishment is severe.

Now, in two ways people, or rather prophets, show miracles. In two ways. One: for the prophet, for the prophet's belief, for his people's belief, a miracle he asks of Allah Almighty. If his people do not believe in this miracle,

Allah Almighty does not destroy that people. But when the people say to Moses or to Jesus or to their prophets: if you show us this miracle we will believe, and Allah Almighty shows that miracle, and that people does not believe in that miracle, destruction becomes due upon them. It becomes a public case. What does that mean? In the first, if the people do not believe in the miracle the prophet asked of his Lord for their belief, they are not destroyed. They only fall into kufr. But even if you fall into kufr, you are not destroyed in this world. Of course the one who does not believe will suffer his punishment in the hereafter.

Hell, sir. The other is what a people ask of their prophet, as the people of Salih asked of the prophet Salih, in order for them to find the dead (?). Sir, if you show us a miracle, they say, if you show it, we will believe in you.

Salih (peace be upon him), of course with Allah Almighty's miracles: a camel, a yellow camel, coming out of the rock. They say show us a miracle, and he will show that miracle. The camel comes out of the rock. Salih: this rock is our Lord's camel. One day a week this camel will drink water; when it drinks, no one will come near it, and no one will put a load on it. It will roam on its own.

Although his people saw the miracle, they cut the camel's legs and kill the camel. So, although they saw the miracle, because they went against Allah's command, (?) destroyed the people of Salih.

In this situation, Allah Almighty's showing Pharaoh, through Moses, many miracles,

and this rescuing of the people of the Children of Israel from there is among our Lord's miracles. That is why He did not destroy them. Where did destruction happen? Again by a seashore, among the people of the Children of Israel, with not fishing on Saturday, they call them the people of the Sabbath, in the matter of not fishing, these broke the command. On the day Allah Almighty said you shall not fish, the sea teemed with fish, while for six days the fish withdrew from the sea, and on the six days fishing was allowed for them; in response they did dirty tricks and built a breakwater, and their priests, that is, their scholars, came to them and said: what you are doing is an evil trick. You will be subjected to our Lord's eternal punishment; despite this they did not listen to their scholars, and finally, when the breakwater was finished, Allah Almighty changed their forms into apes and thereby destroyed them.

Three more days; according to the narration they lived three more days in the shape of apes and died. As it is said, of course according to the narrations, they lived three more days and died. So this is what Dr. Darwin calls man descending from the ape: seeing the miracles of Allah Almighty's verse. Their being found.

Ask the Children of Israel how many clear miracles We gave them; whoever, after the miracles have come to him, changes Allah's blessings, His verses, let him know that Allah's punishment is severe. Yes, our Lord's punishment no one can endure. Allah Almighty gave the forefathers of the Children of Israel many clear miracles. We say. We wrote it in our tafsir. We opened up the verses for you relatively, as a forerunner. We are reading the thing. We are reading the tafsir. Moses saved the Children of Israel from Pharaoh's oppression, fed them (?) (?), raised Mount Sinai over them as a canopy. When He says how many more miracles, how many more miracles, it is these miracles I listed.

Although so many more miracles were given, they still competed with one another in rebelling against Allah Almighty. Such as what? When Moses went up to speak with Allah Almighty, when he went up Sinai, when he brought the ten commandments, their worshipping the calf that the Samiri had made. Plus, although he said go to such and such a place and take it, their saying: you and your Lord go and fight and take it, then we will go. When entering here, enter saying 'hittah'. Sir, their saying words meaning 'you see and watch over us'. In response to Allah Almighty feeding them (?), their saying: we are tired of this, let us eat onions, garlic, the (?) of the world.

These are now acts of being spoiled.

They still competed with one another in rebelling against Allah Almighty. The book Allah Almighty sent, in return for worldly goods, they had the rabbis change. As it suited them, the books, Allah's command, they changed.

and the rabbis, for worldly money, those commands, the words the Children of Israel had said, as the word of Allah, into their books they put. The Children of Israel continue to rebel against Allah Almighty. To the people of the Children of Israel living by the sea, Allah Almighty, on Saturday, forbids fishing, as I said a moment ago. While on the other days they could not find a single fish in the sea, on Saturday the sea teems with fish. Since they were subject to the ban on fishing on Saturday, they resort to an evil trick. They decide to build a breakwater. When they built this breakwater, when there was a rush of fish in the sea on Saturday, they planned to close the breakwater and fish on the other days.

In this way, by decisions they made among themselves, they complete the breakwater. Yes.

And they put the evil trick into practice. Because they did not listen to Allah Almighty's commands and prohibitions, Allah Almighty changes their forms into apes.

When their scholars, that is, their priests, told them: what you are doing is an evil trick, don't do it like this, they did not listen to their scholars. And their scholars built a rampart, a wall, between them and themselves. They ask: why are you building this wall? Why are you building it. We are doing our duty. We are telling them this. Perhaps, he says, if Allah Almighty gives them a calamity, we build this wall so that we are separated from them, he says. And when a calamity came to them, so that they themselves would not be struck by it, they were conveying Allah's commands to them. Conveying.

Yes.

These miracles are our Lord's miracles which He will make people, eternally until the Day of Judgment, (?) until the Day of Judgment, remember; our Lord's miracles.

If a people asks Allah Almighty for a miracle and Allah Almighty brings about that miracle, and the people who asked for it still, in the face of these miracles, do not obey Allah, if they rebel, Allah Almighty seizes them like a public case and destroys them. For example, like the people of Lot, the people of Ad and these people of the Sabbath.

The people of Lot,

the people of Ad, those who transgress, those who overstep the limits, Allah Almighty also destroys. That is, those who overstep the limits of Allah's command. Today, are there not those who overstep the limits of Allah Almighty's command? Plenty. Many. Many. So why is there no destruction? I mean, isn't this now injustice? Yes. Why is there no destruction? The Prophet (peace be upon him): Allah Almighty, 'wa ma arsalnaka illa rahmatan lil-alamin'; since He sent a mercy to the worlds, and since he is alive, since a mercy came to the living worlds, because of his being alive He has lifted destructions and put calamities in their place.

We see it today. What does He say in the verse? We give them two or three calamities every year, He says. Two or three calamities. Do we see these today? We see them. Tsunami waves, volcanoes, earthquakes. Today those storms, tornadoes, I mean, they go on as far as you can see.

In Allah Almighty's destroying people too there are many wisdoms for the benefit of people. Can destruction have wisdoms? It can. The generation that comes after, the generation that comes after: 'we saw our forefathers like this, so in this case will You call us to account?' so that they do not say this, Allah Almighty, by destroying them, gives life to the generation that follows, saves them. Well, Hodja, everyone had their destiny; they will live their destiny. Within that destiny, however far they stay away from that evil, from what they saw, surely they would follow them, and so that they do not say: we saw these, from these we heard and saw it this way, and also as a lesson for them, Allah Almighty gives them these destructions.

Look now, what does He say?

In verse 172 of Surah Al-A'raf, Allah Almighty's covenant with people is there. Where? In the realm of lahut. When He created our souls. Here too, it is not as He said. What does He say? Am I not your Lord? Not that. I am your Lord. A definite command. So that you do not say on the Day of Judgment we were unaware of this, my Lord made a covenant with the children of Adam, with those who would emerge from their offspring. He made them witnesses against their own selves. He said: I am your Lord. And they said: yes, we bear witness. What did they bear witness to? They bore witness to the word: a Lord created me.

Now why does Allah Almighty have this witnessing done? Or: our fathers associated partners with Allah before. We were a generation that came after them. We were a generation that came after them. We followed in their footsteps. We did this so that you do not say: will You destroy us because of those who did falsehood? That is, we made covenants. Everyone's wish and will, as destiny, to them we gave. So Allah Almighty, out of His mercy, in that track, cutting off the tracks of those going on that false track, to the coming generation, with a new life, they will live their own characters. So that they live their own wishes and desires without any pressure and compulsion from their forefathers on them, Allah Almighty destroys those peoples who overstep the right.

In Allah Almighty's destroying people too there are many wisdoms for the benefit of people, we say. A people that has overstepped the limit in transgression. They listen to neither Allah, book nor prophet. Those who go far in oppression. Morals; they commit tortures beyond reason and imagination. Since such people will be bad examples for the generations that come after, in order to give life to the new generations and not make them followers of the people who do these evil deeds, such people who go far in oppression and do not recognise Allah and the prophet, Allah Almighty, by destroying them, saves the generations that will come after from following them.

He grants life to the new generations. Allah Almighty has the attribute of being Allah. Allah Almighty, who cuts off people from every kind of question, so that within this coming generation bad people do not say: we found some of our forefathers on this path, brings about these events of destruction, and to the generations after shows them as examples. So what does it say about a calamity? For the forefathers it is better than a thousand pieces of advice. So, once people saw this calamity, in the face of Allah's majesty, power, greatness, His greatness, they are compelled to obey Him. Because Allah Almighty was going to protect His religion until the Day of Judgment.

So He promised. With the blowing of their mouths, Allah's light, they would put it out, did they think so? Allah will complete His light until the Day of Judgment, He says. Yes. Think of a tree. The tree has blossomed in spring and will bear fruit. Worms cover this tree. They gnaw its leaves and its trunk. That tree will dry up. Rather than cutting that tree at the root, you give up that year's crop. If you spray the tree heavily, you will have saved the tree. So by removing such disobedient people from the earth, Allah Almighty grants life to the coming generations. If people do not listen to Allah and His Messenger, pay no heed to the verses, or as if those verses had no owner, attempt to change them, and dare to do these things, Allah's punishment for them is very severe.

Allah Almighty, 'a-laysa Allahu bi-ahkami al-hakimin', both in this world and in the hereafter subjects them to a severe punishment. He gives them a very painful punishment both in this world and in the hereafter. We said. Yes.