Al-Baqarah 266: Is it the desire of any of you to have a garden of dates and grapes, below which rivers flow and where you can find all kinds of fruits? Bu then, old age comes, and you have children who are dependent on you. And then, a gust with fire hits the garden and burns everything to ashes (- of course you wouldn’t want that). Allah explains Allah’s verses so that you will think about them and understand them.

We had stopped at the sixth verse.

Yes, we read the verse. So, would any of you wish to have a garden of date palms and grapes, with rivers flowing beneath its trees, and all kinds of fruit there for him, then old age strikes him while he has young ones in need of care, and then a fiery storm hits the garden, burns it, turns it to ashes? Of course no one wishes this. So that you may reflect and understand, Allah explains the verses to you.

People — Allah Almighty gives people wealth. He gives children and family.

He lets people live in abundance. Abundance. So the example Allah Almighty gives here: the vineyard and garden are the abundant provisions He has given man. Man does not see the One who gives these provisions. If he is not grateful for what Allah Almighty gave, and as if he had earned it by himself and deserved it, or as if he had created it himself and it were his own, he is stingy with the wealth and it to his own self, his own self with it he has made a god of — and then the moment of death arrives.

Now time has frozen. All the blessings Allah Almighty gave have been taken from him. So that old age arrived, and on the field a fiery storm fell. When he set out on the journey of no return, he went to the hereafter bankrupt. And behind him, for people, he could leave nothing in his Lord's way. (?)

That is the meaning of the verse. Here, a bit more, we have said some (?) differently, but the meaning is the same. Here Allah Almighty — those who are stingy with their wealth and, though they have wealth, keep it in a corner without using it, do not distribute it to the needy, who are greedy for wealth — He makes known the state of such people with an example. As we always say: 'with your wealth and your lives give in charity', He says. These verses, always, amid what our Lord has given us, abundant blessings, thinking of the needy,

ourselves equipped with provision in abundance, without any need — amid the blessings Allah Almighty has given man a person does not thank his Lord, and those who writhe in want he does not think of. Them — from those of them in such want, from those who suffer want, profiting from their conscience, riding on their shoulders, seeing them like creatures crawling on the ground — to such people Allah Almighty gives such a fine example. Yes.

He makes known with an example the state of people greedy for wealth.

Living a magnificent life, amid all kinds of blessings, but stingy with their wealth, not giving charity in Allah's way, keeping their wealth in a corner, not putting it to work — greedy and stingy people: their state, with this verse, He declares to people by bringing a very fine example. Yes, at that moment of old age, the blessings He gave you will vanish. According to the verse: the inheritance of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. If in this world, without thanking for your Lord's blessings, eating and drinking the provision He gave without remembering your Lord, following your whims, you live, when you set out on that journey of no return, when you set out, then, when that old age He speaks of arrives, empty-handed you go to the hereafter.

Yes. A very fine vineyard with every kind of fruit, rivers flowing beneath its ground, a vineyard and garden. It need not be exactly like this. The meaning here: amid the blessings Allah Almighty gave, those with houses, cars, palaces, villas, who, without needing anything, an income (?) their living, who secure an income. In the same situation. Around the vineyard and garden equipped with every blessing he has also built a barrier. Built a barrier. Walled in like a fortress too. Put under protection. Seeing himself as someone who will live forever inside a vineyard and garden that will never end, the person who has locked himself inside that fortress.

That is, making a god of his wealth in his heart, giving none of his income in charity to anyone, the person who holds power with that wealth, like Korah. How? Korah would stand before (?), he would wear his most magnificent clothes, have the servants beside him carry the keys of the treasures, and with that wealth he would (?) them. Thereupon the Jews too would say, 'if only we were like Korah', they said. One day, when again in the same magnificent state, before the (?) people he appeared, Allah Almighty, along with his wealth and his palace, sank him into the depths of the earth. This time the Jews said, 'thank goodness we were not in his situation.' Those who thus (?) with their wealth and property, Allah's given wealth (?) to their own selves, as if this blessing his Lord granted him were not from his Lord, but that by his own being he owns it — wretched people who think so.

Greedy and stingy people, yes: around the vineyard and garden equipped with every blessing he has also built a barrier, walled in like a fortress, put under protection, and himself as one who will live forever in that never-ending vineyard and garden seeing — the person who locks himself inside that fortress. What did I say here? (?) living amid every blessing, far from Allah's (?), the person who does no good deeds. So old age has come upon him, and at that moment a fiery whirlwind has struck the vineyard. What does 'old age has come' mean? That is, the state of death struck. The state of death struck. And at that moment old age, at that moment a fiery whirlwind struck.

What does this mean? That moment of old age is the moment of death; and at that moment, to that garden, a fiery whirlwind striking that garden means all the fine works they had done went to waste. According to the verse, he went bankrupt. And there is no coming back, so that he might live in that world again. He proved himself; he understood what kind of person he was. And in this state he is now going to the hereafter.

Unable to leave anything to his children in need, he is left stark naked, He says. Behind him, anyone who would pray for him and ask mercy for him — not a single person did he leave. Why? Because he did no deeds directed toward his Lord. He did not direct his children and family toward his Lord.

So he could leave nothing to his children in need. If he had left something, if he had left it to the generation after him, good deeds, or had he taught them the religion of Islam or the oneness of Allah, then through the mercy they would pray for their father, that person would have been honoured. So of that too (?); there is no such person either. Yes. We said the meaning in this example: old age is a state in which a person is left powerless and drained. Now he is going. As for the children, every person while in this world wants to leave something to his children. After his death, may his children enliven them, remember him. That is, with that wealth may his children give charity and may good deeds follow after him.

He wants to leave something to his children. After his death, may his children enliven them, remember him. So when old age comes upon a person, (?) He has lost. That is, when the soul reaches the throat, when the soul reaches the throat, go on, turn it back then, He says.

His relatives have gathered around him, waiting for his soul to leave, He says. In Our power, are you closer to him, or We? says Allah Almighty. Yes, just as he did no good deeds in the world, he also turned his back on Allah; like what they did, that has (?) gone to waste. So a fiery whirlwind has fallen on the vineyard. That vineyard was the rewards and good deeds he would have done. Yes.

Just when he (?) need of wealth, the person who loses the wealth in his hand. That is, he saw the hereafter. My Allah, send me back once more. Look, I will (?), when he says this, our Lord: even if We sent you not once but several times back, you would do the same again — according to that verse, there is no return for man again. Yes. When he brings to mind his wealthy state, regret (?), he is left in that state. Yes. He sees he has gone bankrupt. His wealth in the world went (?). That's it. Then, to hold on to a rope, he looks for a strong rope. A strong rope. That strong rope was Allah Almighty's sharia in the religion of Islam. Yet they took gods other than Allah.

Because they expected the Lord of their own imagination, they paid no heed to Allah's verses. And there too, again and again, Allah's — other than Allah, the Lord of his own imagination he will expect, and lean and rely on him. But not on Allah. Not on Allah.

If a person in the world (?) lives in pleasure and the hereafter (?), that he will go to the hereafter empty-handed — how beautifully Allah Almighty describes it with an example, we say. Yes, O people, would you wish for such a state? That is: live in pleasure and delight in the world, this life — imagine it will never end — a life of fifty, sixty years, seventy years, eighty years — at your moment of death, before your eyes, like cigarette smoke dispersing, let it scatter, and the endless peace of the hereafter, which is eternal life, may you turn into eternal torment. Yes. Would you wish for this state?

Allah says: of course you would not wish for it. So that you may reflect and understand, Allah explains the verses to you thus. Thus. So that you may reflect and understand. Yes. Allah Almighty addresses the mind. What does He say? Do you never reflect? Do you never use your reason? He says. Do you not contemplate?

So just as we think of our tomorrow, we are obliged to think of our hereafter too. In this transient and mortal world, if toward what was created for our comfort we are so selfish and eager, if we are so attached to them, not thinking of our eternal life, and ignore our hereafter, we will not have used our reason nor reflected. Thus Allah explains His verses to people who reflect, so that they may take lessons. Allah Almighty gives many examples; with these examples He tries to steer people to the truth, tries to explain the truth to people. But because people's will is in their own hands, because He leaves them free in their own will, because He has declared that every soul, in return for what its two hands earned, will be called to account in the hereafter, our Lord — only 'in the world, my Lord, You gave us no warning' — so that people cannot say this, with encouragements and examples Allah Almighty describes Himself so beautifully.

How beautifully He makes events known. Yes.

Thus Allah explains His verses to people who reflect, so that they may take lessons. Here a proverb comes to my mind. He who falls by himself does not cry. Yes. He who falls by himself does not cry. Allah has shown people every kind of door of mercy. Every kind. From the most ignorant to the most learned, Allah Almighty has made His verses known to people in a way they can understand.

After this, what a person does and which path he takes is left to his own will. So Allah Almighty says there is no difficulty in religion. There is no compulsion. Therefore, so that everyone, within his own will, may prove what kind of person he is, Allah Almighty, who leaves him free in his own will — that people, by their own will, will be called to account for the deeds they actually did, He tells us. If a person closes the doors of mercy upon himself, he cannot blame Allah. So: he who falls by himself does not cry. Now, if they bind themselves to Allah's commands and, as they think of tomorrow, for the hereafter make their preparations, they are people who have used their right and attained Allah's mercy.