Ali 'Imran 110: You are the best community that came out for the goodness of mankind. You order the good and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah. If the People of the Book would have believed, it would have been good for them. There are some among them who believe, but most of them have gone astray.

In verse 110: You are the best community brought forth for the good of mankind. Who are they?

Those honoured with the word of tawhid.

Who have believed in all the prophets of Allah Almighty.

Who are bound by the Holy Quran,

who know Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the last, the Seal of the Prophets, as the Prophet — such people,

these are the most distinguished people Allah has brought forth.

Allah Almighty, in a verse: they, with the blowing of their mouths, (?). Did they think they would put out the light of Allah? Allah will complete His light until the Day of Judgement. What is this? Through whom will He complete it? He will complete it through people honoured with the religion of Islam. He will complete it through Muslims. Through Muslims. And to those Muslims He says: you are the best community brought forth for the good of mankind.

For the good of mankind. That is, they will carry Allah's light on until the Day of Judgement. They will remove the strife and wickedness on earth. According to the verse "fight them until the religion is Allah's". Through the people who will defend Allah's religion, Allah Almighty will make His religion rule until the Day of Judgement.

And there is a fine point here as well. What is that fine point? You are the best community brought forth for the good of mankind. What does He say? You were brought forth for the good of mankind. Who does good?

Those who have turned to Allah, who have kept away from sin, people who act for Allah do good.

So what does He say here? O My servants who have spoken the testimony of faith and are Muslims, however much evil you do, you cannot do as much evil as an idolater, as a non-Muslim. And in the end that light of faith stops you with the fear of your Lord, and even if you are somewhere on the edge of that cliff, you stop, He says.

Yes. you are the best community.

You enjoin good, forbid evil and believe in Allah, He says. You enjoin good. But only people who fear Allah enjoin good.

Today everyone in the religion of Islam, and those outside the religion of Islam too, enjoin good, but those outside the religion of Islam who enjoin good, with their hearts scattered and restless, enjoin good for their own interests, and in hostility to Allah, to draw people into their own ranks. Here they serve their own ideologies. They do not enjoin good for Allah's sake. Only the Muslim enjoins good for Allah's sake. The Muslim — and Allah Almighty gives us the good news that the Muslim will bow to no one but Allah and will never turn to shirk, and that in the end they will attain salvation.

"If the People of the Book also had faith," He says, "that would certainly have been much better for them." "Though among them there are those who believe, most of them have gone astray," He says.

Now, that was verse 110. Here, this point — This I want to remind you of. We have been talking here about the verses for close to two years, I suppose. Close to two years.

If we had been here a (?) or ill-intentioned person outside the religion of Islam, or if we had interpreted the verses as we ourselves understood them, by now many words that contradict each other would have come from me.

So then, if we, in this much talking — let me close this point here, and then I'll go on with the rest. Do you want to make a person lie? he says. Lie. Make him talk a lot, he says. He who talks a lot lies a lot. In that case, I have been talking for years. Since what I say is not from my own mind but from inspiration, you will not find a lie in me. In me you will not find the same word and its opposite, words that contradict each other. Can any of you here say it? "There I said this, and here that." Can you say it? Have you ever heard it? Would you hear it? I mean, have you heard it? I also have students of thirty years.

"Hodja, here you said this, and there you said that." At least name one, come on, just one. You cannot.

So then, when you talk according to your own mind, stringing together thousands of lies and superstitions, you tell people superstitions, saying you are explaining Allah. And then, because the truth goes against your mind, the truth — you, because you are bound by these superstitions, you rebel against the truth. So you misunderstand 389 verses, you — that, scholars wrote it. Scholars wrote those 389 wrong for them. You cannot even be the dust of them. Now think of the superstition in you. And now think how you are a person swimming in an ignorance that rebels against the truth, think about it yourself.

With this verse Allah Almighty gives good news to Islam. Good news. He gives the good news that, with the religion of Islam, the last one Allah Almighty sent, those who invite people to good and kindness, who do not spread corruption on earth, who enjoin good and forbid evil — He will place those people among the ones who attain salvation and reward them with Paradise. Through Muslims.

Bringing people together, commanding them to be brothers, through the religion of Islam giving people life — Allah Almighty makes His religion, its sharia rulings, known to us through His verses. Whoever is honoured with this religion is, He declares, the best community brought forth for the good of mankind, believing in Allah. The best community. These are people who, (?), in every age, come to this world like pearls. Who are they? Muslims. Muslims. So then, although a person knows that he will one day taste death and go from this transient world to the world of the hereafter, what person would not want to be a sultan of the hereafter?

We will move on from here one day anyway. We will go. And in the end, every soul, every soul will taste death, and in the end your return is to Me, says Allah Almighty. In that case, if in this world, within a lifetime, we are like a traveller journeying in a caravan, then surely that journey will have an end. Then at that end our Lord, who awaits us and calls us to account, will in that Supreme Court call us to account for what we have done. To account.

If, for your true homeland, for your original home, you observe Allah's commands in this world, if people, Muslims, are brothers, and you do not deceive your brother, if you do your buying and selling and trade within the provisions Allah has assigned you, and if within this trade you constantly remember your Lord, you will have built up the world of the hereafter. Allah Almighty does not say: work and give to Me, and in return I will give you Paradise. What are we to do? By being bound by Allah's commands, in the finest way, as heirs of the world of the hereafter, of Paradise, we are to go into the presence of Allah Almighty.

How will we go? By doing Allah's commands. Yes. Who would not want to attain the mercy of the One who created him? he says.

Who would not want every wish and desire of his to be fulfilled in the hereafter? So those honoured with the religion of Islam, those who hold fast to this religion, who know Allah as the Creator, believe in Him and submit.

They reach the clear victory Allah will give people. They attain Allah's mercy in the hereafter.

Yes.

"If the People of the Book had also believed," He says. There is a lot to explain, but I am going through it briefly. Look. Sir, here they attribute this verse too to certain (?) verses. Yes. Allah's word is both outward and inward. What does Allah Almighty say in Surah Al-Fath, let's see now, let's open it. Surah Al-Fath:

We have indeed granted you a clear victory; We have indeed granted you a clear victory. Clear victory — since the Holy Quran calls itself clear, and in many verses about the Holy Quran He says: We have sent you clear verses. So: a conquest. What conquest? Fatih Sultan Mehmet opens a new era, sir, he brings down the Byzantine Empire, and the new age — the Middle Ages go, a new age begins. That is a conquest. So all religions, that is, the People of the Book, being gathered in the Holy Quran, all the prophets being brought to an end, and the religion of Islam keeping its rule until the Day of Judgement — isn't that a great conquest?

Isn't this a great victory? Yes.

And after that, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So that Allah may forgive your past and future sins. He says it so beautifully. (?) So that Allah Almighty the past and future sins of the Prophet may forgive. and complete His favour upon you and lead you to a straight path. Here: "lead". Because not "shows". "Leads". My Lord educated me, (?). He says, and he is the person who submitted to Allah with his whole being. That is why Allah Almighty led him to a straight path — the Prophet (peace be upon him).

Also: and He helps you with a mighty victory, He says.

Here He now promises. "It is He who sent down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers so that they would add faith to their faith," He says. Tranquillity. The armies of the heavens and the earth belong to Allah. Allah is All-Knowing; He does everything with wisdom. He is the One who does everything with wisdom, He says. It is He who sends down tranquillity into the hearts of the believers, He says. Yes. If you are a believer, whatever dead end you get into, whatever hardship you face, even if you are under shackles, you are with your Lord. If you submit yourself to your Lord and in the end (?) this world. In the eternal home of bliss of the hereafter, in a state where your Lord will be pleased with you, if you submit to Him, then even if the torment of this world, between two mill- stones, grinds you, that submission gives that person's heart tranquillity. That is tranquillity.

That is also the tranquillity Allah gives to the human heart. Yes.

"If the People of the Book had also believed," He says, "that would surely have been much better for them." Allah Almighty is very compassionate and merciful towards His creatures. Isn't it so that Allah created — I am saying this now to people like Molla Kasım.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Wa laqad dhara'na li jahannama kathiran mina'l-jinni wa'l-ins.

In all the books: "We have certainly created many of mankind and jinn for Hell," it says. Those superstitions say this. But Allah does not say it that way.

Who says this? People like Molla Kasım say this. Poor souls who pass for scholars say this. "Hey Hodja, why are you insulting us?" "This is the Arabic grammar," they say. This. Arabic grammar does not concern me. Allah's word concerns me. The essence of the Quran concerns me. The essence. This is the essence of the Quran. What is it?

Indeed, Hell was created for many of mankind and jinn. Hell, Hell. Mankind and jinn were not created for Hell. If that were so — look, to the idolaters, the enemies of religion: those within the religion of Islam Allah Almighty loves so well; "if the People of the Book had also believed, that would surely have been very good for them," He says. Would Allah wrong what He created? And then those poor souls stand up and say: the Hodja interprets the verses according to his own mind. One really has to laugh. Those bound by superstitions have nothing else to say. One really laughs, one laughs. Yes, Allah Almighty is very compassionate and merciful towards His creatures.

If those who rebel against Allah Almighty, who revolt, knew what would befall them, if they could firmly believe in the torment they will suffer, and if they could turn back from this behaviour, it would surely be better for them, and people on earth would live like brothers. Like brothers.

Then the earth would take on a festive air. A festival. The earth would be a festival, a festive air. Because everyone fears Allah. Feels shame before His Beloved. Acts according to the noble rulings. And if people were sincere towards each other, as a relative, as a father looks after his child, as a brother looks after a brother, if people looked after each other, the earth would turn into a festive air.

But those who are hostile to Allah's existence, who expect a Lord according to their own fancies, and in the end, according to the verse in which Allah Almighty said "Are those who know and those who do not know equal?" — He, (?), in His attribute of being the Judge of judges, will call us to account among us, in the Supreme Court. And in the end what does He say? "Today, so that no one is wronged, what each has earned with his own two hands will be given to him in full in return," He said.

"Though among them there are some who have believed, but they are a minority," He says. They cannot come out into the open either. Because of their rabbis, their priests, their own people. Why can't they come out into the open? Because they would excommunicate them. What does excommunicate mean, Hodja? The enemies of religion come together and give those who become Muslim no right to food, drink or life. They leave him to himself. Well, nobody gives this man work. If he gets no food or drink, what will he do? It means he has been left to die. That is what being excommunicated is. Just look at the (?) of the Christian world.

Whereas look at the mercy of Allah Almighty. Lakum dinukum wa liya din. "Your religion is yours, and my religion is mine," He says. Also: "If you were seized at once for the mistakes you have made, you would not find a single living being on earth," He says. Also: "Do not mock any people. That is, do not ridicule. Perhaps that people is better than you," He says. (?) But He says that the Christian world, or people outside the religion of Islam, excommunicate those who find the truth because they go against their ideologies — they excommunicate people.

Most of them have gone astray; when you convey the truth to them they rebel, they do not want to hear (?). They turn away from the books Allah sent and from His Prophet; because of their rebellion against Allah they take a stand against those who say Allah, and as far as they can, against those who say Allah, they (?). They are people gone astray who never stop working to wipe out Allah's religion, who prefer crooked paths to straight paths, who in the hereafter prefer, instead of Allah's light, His fire. May Allah Almighty grant such people first, first guidance, and then all of us His mercy — may He grant it.