Al-Baqarah 284: Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth, it belongs to Allah. Allah knows the hidden and the apparent in your nafs (self/ego) and will judge you by what you do. Allah forgives those who desire from Allah and Allah punishes those who desire from Allah. Allah is All-Powerful.

Look what Allah Almighty says now in verse 284: Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth all belongs to Allah. It now confirms what I said earlier. Everything on the earth. Allah created me. Allah created you too. We did not create each other, even if we are father and child. But we have rights and duties toward one another. He knows what is hidden and open in your nafs; He calls you to account for what you do.

This is one of the verses that are wrongly explained. It says: Allah forgives whom He wills, it says. And punishes whom He wills, it says. Rather: whoever wills attains Allah's forgiveness, and whoever wills, His punishment. Allah has power over all things, we say. Yes. Otherwise: Allah forgives whom He wills, He does not punish whom He wills. Those who explain the verses this way, who say we built knowledge upon this, have ascribed attributes to Allah; they have no idea. They know nothing of (?), nor, knowing it this way, of the verses.

These verses make a person old.

These verses make a person old. To one who understands, a mosquito is music; to one who doesn't, drum and zurna are too little.

Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth all belongs to Allah. This verse makes a person old.

Of the enemies of religion, of people who do not know themselves, of the enemies of Allah — who say evolution and, through the changes of some animals, tie their conditions to evolution; who, though it has no life, no soul, no mind, tie it to this thing called evolution — these poor people, how devoid of reason they are is plain to see.

Why is it plain that they are devoid of reason? From our father Adam until now man has always been man, always man — what are we saying? From our father Adam until now he has undergone no change. If for thousands of years he has undergone no change, and though this thing called evolution, in this universe, has no mind and life, they attribute mind and life to it, and this creation as they please, according to their own minds — this creation our Lord created — how did this animal perfect itself and turn out that way? Does that animal too have a mind able to evolve and change itself? If he proves this to me, I will believe what he says.

If we look at human beings,

in constant development, in constant progress, in this way they have left primitive conditions, and in later ages risen to a time when science and technology advanced. If this animal could change itself, it too would not have stood still; with much evolution it would have made many inventions. It changed itself, after all; it made an invention. These poor people who lack such things, because they are enemies of Allah, try to distort certain matters. So Allah Almighty answers them. Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth all belongs to Allah. The One who holds the secret of creation, who creates from nothing, is Allah.

In His verse, Allah Almighty has power over all things. That is, He has power over all that He created. The inheritance of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. Well, if this creature that can change itself created itself,

can it too come out and say, I created myself, I am not its owner? Can that animal find a tongue and say it? It cannot, because it does its duty according to the duty it was created for. Those poor people who declare themselves scholars and set out to prove certain things, poor people, within their own ideologies, guessing their own results, raise the flag of rebellion against Allah — such are those people.

So if all that is in the heavens and on the earth belongs to Allah,

you who stand at their most advanced stage — O man, now I am calling to you. What have you created?

What have you created? Forget creating — where did you come from? Did you come into being by yourself? Use your mind a little. You too are a servant created by Allah. He knows what is hidden and open in your nafs. How beautifully He says it — why does He know? Ever since, in Allah's realm, He created our souls, the secret of those souls of ours — Allah Almighty, who knows it, knows what they will come to need. When He made a covenant with them, our Lord, who wrote their wishes and desires as destiny for them, knows what they hide in their hidden and open hearts.

He calls you to account for what you do. For what? For what we do. Come on, if you own yourself, step outside what Allah created, and without coming into His presence, by yourself, sir, sustain yourself and give yourself life. You cannot do this. It is not possible. What does it say next? Every soul shall taste death. Look, the words always prove one another. Is there anyone who does not die? Is there a living being that does not die? Show me. Every soul shall taste death. Your return is to Allah, it says. Yes. To the One who created you. So whatever is in the heavens and on the earth all belongs to Allah.

He created all of it. He knows what is hidden and open in your nafs. He calls you to account for what you do. In that realm of Lahut, at the call of Elestü bi-Rabbiküm, when He said I am your Lord, Allah Almighty, who gave each person a destiny according to his wishes and desires, calls out to people. And He says: did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? In this verse, from here on, people explain this verse wrongly.

What does it say? Then He forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills. Wow! Look, he is blaming Allah. Allah will punish whom He wills and forgive whom He wills, supposedly. Wasn't Allah Almighty's mercy abundant? Wasn't His pardon and forgiveness abundant? Didn't He send me a prophet? He will forgive whom He wills and punish whom He wills, supposedly. Whoever wills attains Allah's forgiveness, whoever wills, His punishment. Who is it? Man, man. If man wills, he will say: O my Allah,

You created me deficient in mind. I was helpless. I lived through a period of ignorance. And I rebelled against You. I have understood that I have no other door to go to besides You. I have understood that You are the Owner of this whole universe, and again I have understood that since there is no door to go to besides You, there is also no door to take refuge in besides You. O my great Lord, because I was created deficient, for the mistakes I made, forgive me — if you say this, whoever wills, you attain His forgiveness. Allah is forgiving; even if your sins have reached the clouds in the sky, when you repent with such sincerity of heart, Allah Almighty turns your sins into good deeds. And whoever wills attains His punishment. Who wills Allah's punishment?

Allah Almighty sent you the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad, as a mercy to the worlds; He gathered the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel in the Holy Quran. O people!

After this I will send you no prophet, no book. Obey My Prophet, whom I sent today as a mercy to the worlds, and the Holy Quran, He said. If you turn your back on this,

while Allah Almighty's sharia ruling says: do not drink alcohol, do not gamble, do not commit adultery, do not eat the forbidden, do not deal in interest — and you push Allah's limits, busy yourself with these, and in prayer, in supplication, in fasting, in zakat, in hajj, if you never (?), if you are at odds with these, this punishment — did you will it, or did Allah will it? Be wise — words I always repeat: be wise, use your minds, your minds. Look what it says: Allah has power over all things, it says at the end; of course He is powerful. What did it say at the start? Whatever is in the heavens and on the earth all belongs to Allah, all of it. At the end what does it say? Allah has power over all things. He knows every state and movement of what He has created.

Without being powerful over it, He creates no being that is not under His rule. Therefore He knows the state of all He created, living and lifeless. This is Allah.

Let's also read our tafsir, let's see. So what did we say? These verses make a person old. How will they make me old? I will say to myself: well now, hajji efendi, don't give people fatwas and swallow the grape bunch yourself, look. Allah Almighty has power over all things. All these worlds are under His sight. In the end we will return to Him. He knows the hidden and the open of what is in our nafs.

If, due to our deficient creation, we do not become worthy of our Lord's verses, and, as we wish, or rather as our Lord wishes, do not abide by those verses, tomorrow at that Great Court, before our Lord, what answer will I give? What answer will I give? If there is no god but Allah, if there is no other door to go to but Him, and if I do not carry out the command of the One who created me, what will become of me — if you think this, these things make you old. If you worked in a factory or in a government office, if you worked there, and the duty given to you in that office you did not carry out, they would dismiss you.

First they send you a personal letter. Then they tamper with your record. Then they (?) you. This world is a likeness and shadow of the hereafter.

Just as meticulously as the order given to you in the places where you work you carry out, so you are obliged to carry out the command of Allah, Owner of these worlds. If you step outside this — since this world is a likeness and shadow of the hereafter — just as you are punished here, in the realm of the hereafter the punishment our Lord will give you is unlike the punishment of this world. If we turn our eternal home of bliss into an eternal home of torment — here, when a splinter pricks our hand, we can't stand the pain; there, the endless pain of an eternal life — will you be able to endure it?

To test this, take a needle and prick your fingertip.

If you can endure that, you will endure the torment there too.

A story comes to my mind here.

The sultan's daughter gets curious and leaves the palace.

This place, that place, here is mine, there is yours, and so on, she stays till evening, wanders the city, the city.

She had never gone out into the city, and she loses her way.

She sees a place like a hut, with a light burning there. There are people here, she says, and goes there.

She knocks on the door; a young man opens it.

Tonight I am a guest of God, she says. I lost my way, I am the sultan's daughter, she says.

The young man answers her like this. I can't take you in, because I am single; besides me there is no one in the house, he says. The girl says, I too have nowhere to go. Well, would you do something that leaves me exposed to disasters? she says. If I went from here and a disaster befell me, wouldn't you suffer pangs of conscience? she says. Then come in, he says. She comes in.

At a late hour of the night, he gives his bed to the girl. He draws a curtain between them. He himself sits by the hearth. The girl is curious; through the curtain: what is this boy doing, she wonders. She looks: now and then the boy reaches his hand to the fire and pulls it back. Reaches and pulls back. He spent the night like this until morning. Morning comes. He says to the girl, get up, let me take you to your father; he gets her up, takes the sultan's daughter to the sultan, takes her. The sultan says at once, cut off this boy's head. The girl says, father, the boy committed no crime that he should have his head cut off; if you have his head cut off, you will sin, she says; he is innocent.

My daughter, a man and a girl stay a night in one house, and he did not assault you? I swear by Allah, she says. He did not even lay a hand on me. Well, how can that be? I was parting the curtain, looking now and then, she says. He was reaching his hand to the fire and pulling it back, she says. Reaching and pulling back. He did this until morning, she says. He calls the young man: come here, he says. Why did you reach your hand to the fire? (?) my nafs was telling me, be with the girl, he says. And because I fear Allah, I was telling my nafs: if you can bear this fire, you will bear Allah's torment too. When I put my hand into the fire, I could not bear that fire.

I could never bear Allah's fire, I was saying. I did not come near her at all, nor did I do her any wrong, he says. And I give my daughter to you, he says. Yes. This is uprightness.

This is uprightness.

Allah has power over all things. Let's see how we explained the verse here. Let's look at that.

Whatever has been created in the heavens, on the earth and between the two belongs to Allah. Because in one verse He says, all beings, living and lifeless, know the remembrance of their Lord. What does He say? All beings, living and lifeless, all created beings, know the remembrance of their Lord, He says. So, according to this, Allah has made His creatures remember His essence, has set His seal on them as Creator; if He made them remember Him by the attributes of His essence, then, since there is no other creator, the whole universe and these worlds belong to Allah. Here we explained this scientifically, scientifically: all living and lifeless, magnetic or antimagnetic, the atoms of all matter, their nuclei, positive and negative nuclei — when they spin around their own axes, though we do not hear it, Allah Almighty has made them remember His essence.

Meaning: He has set the sign that there is no god but Allah. Had He not made them remember His essence, the human mind would probably say this too was created by someone else, since our Lord did not set His seal on it. Just as factories stamp their mark on the product they make, and it represents that factory and those people, so Allah Almighty, of all this creation, living and lifeless, that He created, the atoms in the matter of the Throne and the Footstool, and the atoms' nuclei — by turning them around their axes, by making them remember Him — has signified that there is no god but Allah.

From here we can draw yet another meaning. O people! What is with you, of which you say it is my property, the worldly blessings, are nothing but an amusement given to you in the realm of this world.

And what do our forefathers say? Owner of property, owner of estate, where is its first owner? Property is a lie, estate is a lie; take it, you too play with it a while. Which of us, going to the hereafter, has been able to take from the world even a speck of a pinch of what we loved most?

We can take it, Hodja. How do we take it? If you give charity for Allah's sake. It still stays in the world, but in return for what is here, to the hereafter, the realm of the hereafter, you will have transferred it.

According to a verse, the life of this world is nothing but play and amusement, He says. Yes, according to the verse every soul shall taste death, people and created things are mortal, while Allah, (?) ve tekaddes, He is everlasting.

Do not forget your Lord, deceived by the world; in the end your return is to Allah, He says. So if a person takes possession of what Allah gave as if he had created it himself, and this blessing our Lord gave him he does not see as a trust in his keeping, he wrongs his own self.

He knows what is hidden and open in your nafs, and for what you do He calls you to account. Some scholars have explained this verse like this. Whether you hide what is within you or reveal it, Allah Almighty will call you to account for it. Never! Never! Look what it says here: whether you hide what is within you or reveal it, Allah Almighty will call you to account for it. Whereas Allah Almighty — a good deed passes through your mind, you will help a mosque, you have no money. Even though you could not help, He gives you a reward; it is our Lord's mercy. And you feel like slapping someone, you got angry, you feel like hitting him, you feel like harming him, but you didn't — there is no sin at all.

Because you did not turn it into action, into deed.

One of the Companions, while fighting in battle,

gets an enemy under him;

the person, the enemy, pronounces the declaration of faith. But the Companion strikes with his sword and takes his head. His friend beside him says, I will tell the Prophet about you. Though that person pronounced the declaration of faith, you took his head, he says. Tell him, says the other. He comes and tells the Prophet. The Prophet (peace be upon him) calls him to account. Why did you do this, he says. O Messenger of Allah, he said it out of fear. How was I to know his heart, he says. Did you split open his heart and look, he says. Did you split open his heart and look? Here attention must be paid to the meaning, to the word.

To the word. Even if he said it falsely, the word counts. Because he put it into action.

Faith is affirmation with the tongue and confirmation with the heart. If he affirmed it with the tongue, even if he did not confirm it in the heart, at that moment him, that word, you witnessed. For its sake you should have pardoned him. But the Companion — beware the insight of the believer, for he sees with Allah's light — according to that hadith, he sees it and strikes off the head. He did that, and it was right. But to show us that the actual deed is what counts, it is told this way.

Yes.

Because Allah does not call people to account for what passes through their minds. What did we say? We said this explanation is wrong. It is wrong. Because Allah does not call people to account for what passes through their minds. As long as people do not turn what passes through their minds into action.

No person is called to account for what passes through his mind. Because Satan and the nafs leave nothing they do not bring into a person's heart. But Allah has given people will, given them mind, given them feelings. People use these, filter what passes through their minds, abide by Allah's command; if they do no evil deeds, turn in action to good things, and conduct their affairs by Allah's commands, they get reward. If they act otherwise, they get sin. Give me a tea, would you.

So, as long as people do not turn what passes through their minds into action, they get neither reward nor sin. Out of Allah's majesty and greatness, because Allah loves His servants so much, when it passes through a person's mind to do good and his means are not enough, if he forms the intention, had Allah given me I would have done this good, Allah writes a reward for this person because of his good intention and His mercy to His servants. As I said earlier. But if a bad intention passes and the person does not put it into action, he gets neither a sin nor a reward.

Therefore, if we are to be called to account for what we do, for what we do we are to be called to account, Allah Almighty reminds us of this: O people! When you finally die, in the realm of the hereafter, in the divine presence, do not forget the Day of Reckoning. Look what He reminds us of. O people! When you finally die, in the realm of the hereafter, in the divine presence, do not forget the Day of Reckoning. While in the realm of this world, remembering that Day of Reckoning, the Great Court, conduct your affairs so that what you do accords with Allah's pleasure.

Yes.

If I give you an example from myself: every time I open my mouth, what answer will I give my Lord for this word of mine, I think. Every time I open my mouth, every time I am about to say something to a person, in return for this, what answer can I give my Lord? That is why, when answering people, without going beyond the verses, in the light of the verses and rulings, I speak to them. Apart from that, no one gets an answer from me.

If you do so too, you will have turned to good, you will have won Allah's pleasure. Even if you make a mistake, deeds depend on intentions. You could not know the matter behind the verse; in a way fit to come before your Lord, with good intention, in His presence, I (?) — I told him this, you said, and even if you led him into sin, you still get a reward. But on something you do not know, never speak. Yes.

Whoever wills attains Allah's forgiveness, and whoever wills, Allah's punishment. So your limited free will is in your hands. Whoever abides by Allah's rulings will attain Allah's mercy, his sins are forgiven him, and whoever steps outside Allah's rulings becomes subject to Allah's punishment. Allah has power over all things; Allah encompasses all things; He is aware of everything and has power over everything.