Al-Hajj 48: There are many nations that I gave them a time, while they were committing oppression; eventually, I captured them. And return is only to Me.

Verse 48 of Surah Al-Hajj. How many lands there are to which I gave respite while they persisted in wrongdoing. Now, Allah Almighty always supports His verses with one another. No verse without supporting any other has been written. Or sent. What does this mean now? How many lands there are to which I gave respite while they persisted in wrongdoing. Now Allah Almighty says in a verse: if you, whenever you committed a fault, were immediately seized, you would find no living being on earth, He says.

Doesn't this support that, too? They make mistakes. They do wrong. And Allah Almighty gives them respite. In a second (?) verse: did you think that, without proving what kind of person you are, you would die? He says. According to these verses, people, both when they do wrong and when they make mistakes, within the frame of a certain lifespan given to them, will carry on their lives. Allah Almighty permits them in this way. Then in the end I seized them; the return is to Me alone, He says. That is, when they have proven what kind of people they are, Allah Almighty, what does He say? In the end I seized them.

We did not create people on earth so they would drown the earth in oppression and shed blood, He says. Nor did We create the generations to come so that they would forget the Lord who created them. Their removal gives life to the generations that come after. Yes, how many lands there are to which I gave respite while they persisted in wrongdoing; in the end I seized them. The return is to Me alone, He says. What does it say? Every soul shall taste death; our return is to Me. Many lands, and the peoples living in these lands, by denying Allah, have strayed from Allah's justice. While such people wronged their own selves and those around them, a period was granted to them.

In the end, Allah Almighty, either by turning their towns upside down or, when people's lives were complete, through their tasting death, Allah seized them. Granting them time is so that they may prove what kind of people they are. Or does Allah Almighty not know? What these are? He knows. He knows. If He knows what these are, then He, in the hereafter, that is, in that realm of Lahut, having created our spirits and addressed us, although He knows what kind of people we are, why did He send us here?

To an unseen world where His essence is not seen. My Allah, I saw You like myself. I could not believe in You.

Had You sent me to an unseen world, I would have worshipped You well there. Had You sent me a prophet, sent me a book, I would have worshipped You there — so they may not say this. Because He is free of deficient attributes, He sent us to an unseen world. Is there a verse on this? There is. Verse 47 of Surah Al-Qasas, probably. As far as memory serves. We always open this, but it's worth opening it again. Why is it worth it? It's worth reading. Sir, so it is understood better — so these are understood better. I'm reading verse 47 of Surah Al-Qasas from here. Were it not that, when a calamity befell them for what they themselves did, they would say: Our Lord, how good it would have been had You sent us a prophet, so we could follow Your verses and be among the believers, We would not have sent you, it says.

That is, having created these worlds, We would not send you — the prophets He means — over them as ones who know their Lord, He says. Now, Surah Ta-Ha, verse 134. If We, before this, before the Qur'an, it says. Since the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel are within the Qur'an, given that it says before the Qur'an, before we even came to the world, in the hereafter, when our Lord made His covenant with us — it points to that meaning. What does it say? If We had destroyed them with a punishment before this, before the Qur'an, that is, when He said I am your Lord, three (?) classes came about.

O people of the right! O people of the left!

The group of the Sabikun: the saints, the prophets, the martyrs, the (?) group. Had We destroyed you there, although knowing you as people of the left, He says. What does it say? If We had destroyed them with a punishment before this, before the Qur'an, that is, still there. They would surely have said this: O Lord, had You sent us a messenger, so that before falling into this lowliness and disgrace we might have followed Your verses. Come on then, bring it on. An unseen world. A world where our Lord is not seen. Since Allah Almighty is free of deficient attributes, no one could say to Allah Almighty: you should have done this like that too; Allah uses His attribute of being God over people, so no one can find a deficiency in Allah Almighty; those who, bowing their heads over what they did, in their regret still with their own nafs rebel against Allah, they are the eternal people of hell.

Sir, in this world, since our Lord is free of deficient attributes, us — had people (?) said it this way, He says, We would have destroyed you there, He says. That is, We sent you to where you are. We sent you to the world. And We know what you will do, He says. There is not a single living being to come until the Last Day whose deeds We do not know, He says. In this case, in the verse Allah Almighty says: in the end, Allah Almighty either turning their towns upside down, (?) when the beings' lives were complete, through tasting death Allah seized them. Granting them time is so that they may prove what kind of people they are. So they come to the world; the desire, wish and intent of the covenant there He places in people as characters. When, within those characters, persons make their desires and wishes plain — this is the greatness of Allah Almighty's Godhood. Creating causes according to everyone's desire and wish, those persons doing, by their own desires and wishes, their own deeds, and earning reward and sin: this proves what kind of person one is.

In this case a person may be an unripe fruit, may act on carnal feelings, may, since his nafs has not reached maturity, commit sin. In time, when the feelings in the person mature, he repents and seeks forgiveness; if he is governed by Allah's sharia rulings, his past is forgiven. Why? Because there are many reasons. The reasons rest on verses. We did not create you free of error, He says. That's one. He created our reason incomplete. Why did He create it so? Had He created it complete, we too would be creators. We would have created beings equal to His essence. That's two. Since our reason is incomplete, we are in a position to tell right from wrong, but until we find what's right, we could make mistakes.

Third, He sends us books, scholars, prophets. So that you come to the truth. Thus one reaches maturity. When the fruit ripens, the person, with a feeling of regret, in repentance and seeking forgiveness, has turned to Allah. And Allah Almighty forgives his past sins. From then on the person continues in Islam as a good human being. If not, he does not repent. He lives his own nature according to his own character, and if in his nature he was a denier, and in a way that shows his denial he rebels against Allah, then that person too proves himself in this world in this way. After everyone, within his own lifespan, has fully proven himself — every soul shall taste death, your return is to Me, according to the verse He spoke.

When their lives are complete, the divine command comes to pass and the body separates from the spirit. The spirit is immortal. Spirits are immortal. It goes to the place of the realm of barzakh. It waits there. Yes.

The meaning of "I seized" in this verse: it is because Allah, who sends people to the world of dominion, so that within their lifetimes these people, living their destinies, may hold themselves witnesses to themselves, to those around them and to Allah Almighty, without interfering in what they do leaves them free. What does this writing prove to us? There are many meanings in these, but we go through them like this, sentence by sentence.

That there is partial will in man, that with partial will, with the characters people gave, that is, with rulings, they earn reward and sin; that Allah Almighty does not interfere in people's doing good deeds and sins; in this case every person's reward and sin, earned by the decisions he made within his own judgment, through the deeds he has done. How beautiful. Yes.

Now, now, let me say this much: the meaning of this last sentence I explained — people who say I am a scholar are unaware of it. Because they are unaware of partial will. Because Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172 — they are unaware of it.

Yes.

And in the continuation of the verse, when He says your return is to Me alone, that besides Allah there is no other god, and that people will absolutely be returned to Allah Almighty and called to account there, He declares.

Those who say there's probably no resurrection after a person dies, those who are in doubt.

These, because of their faith — I'm speaking of Muslims — because of their faith, however much they may hesitate, as long as they say the testimony of faith, they will surely hesitate. But as long as they go on upon the natural disposition of Islam, their accounts will come to light at the Supreme Court.

As for the non-Muslim, since he doesn't believe anyway, in the hereafter too he will not believe, and so he will be in hell forever. But when a person is at peace, when he is at peace, he believes, he has full faith.

And that person, the one who has come to be at peace, is called a mu'min. Mu'min. Every person who utters the testimony of faith is a Muslim. But not a mu'min. The mu'min passes through the nafs al-ammara, the nafs al-lawwama, the nafs al-mulhima. And with the nafs al-mutmainna. O soul that has found rest! You too, being pleased with your Lord, enter among My servants. He is the person to whom He says: Enter My paradise.

He has come to know these manifestations. Allah Almighty's manifestation through forms in the realm of the heart. Young, old, aged, bearded, beardless, in all kinds of forms. From our father Adam to the people who will come until the Last Day, bring their forms before your eyes. Allah Almighty is even more than those forms. Because if He gives a part of His form, that is, a part of His spirit, to man, and from that part the forms of so many people do not resemble one another, then the forms of the whole spirit — you think about that.

People who cannot grasp it might say this: This man has ascribed attributes to Allah. Let him. Since he cannot grasp it, with an ignorant word from his own tongue he proves himself to be ignorant. What do we say? From our father Adam until the Last Day, the people to come — if in a part it is this much, more than their forms, how much would it be in the whole? In this case, however you know Me, I am also a (?) of that, also a (?) of that, also a (?) of that — that is what the verse amounts to. Yes. All verses support one another. But if a person, a plain one, judges by reason, by as much as his eye sees — we call this outward reason, an outward state — and says there's nothing beyond it, he is mistaken.

Today radar picks up, thousands of kilometers away, any object. If you don't believe in radar, if you don't, that outward reason of yours cannot know the movement of the object on the radar screen, or what it is. What do you do? You deny that too. Saying such a thing can't be. So those who see that radar screen are the people open to unveiling, and those who speak only as far as their eye sees are the outward people.

Since he knows nothing of the radar screen, he denies what appears on it. Because he doesn't know what radar is, and how the object is caught on the screen he doesn't know either. Openness to unveiling is just like this. I don't know if I managed to explain it.

Thank you.