Talk of 8 April 2023

What if we took it more correctly, like this.

Peace be upon you, good evening.

What does Ömer Sefa say? 131, 155, what does it say?

We left off at Surah Al-A'raf, verse 155. Look. 131. page. Yes. Page 131. Let's look here. 131 is here. 131. Is he saying verse 155? Yes. We left off at verse 155. Now there are some things. There are questions. Let's answer the questions, and then we'll move on, God willing. There are probably 3 questions. Sefa, Ömer Sefa, let me enlarge these a bit (?)

1-2-3. Peace be upon you, sir. Our elders say that having photographs in the rooms of our homes, and figures, toys standing out in the open, figures on bedspreads, bring no good. Is there any truth in this? he asks.

There is no such thing as "bringing no good". He says figures are "memnu" in our religion, that is, forbidden, but places where they are essential are exceptions, like money, like ID cards, such places are exceptions. In our homes we put up pictures as keepsakes. For example, toward the place where a picture is, facing it, you cannot even pray, where a picture is, a figure, that is a picture. And of animals too, facing some of them; for example, in India they used to worship the ox, the Apis ox. Some, sir, worship the monkey. Landscape pictures are an exception. One can pray facing these. One cannot pray facing these animals either.

One can never pray facing a figure. Yes. Hold on, like this. They said it right, but they called it "bringing no good". It does not bring no good. That is the inside of the matter. Like this.

Who else is here?

Yes.

Someone also says: Peace be upon you, Hodja. In a talk I listened to, it was said that there is no showing off in obligatory worship, even that reminding people of the obligation brings reward. It was stated that showing off can be in a voluntary worship. Is this correct, Hodja? May Allah be pleased with you. It is not correct.

If there is no showing off in prayer, the hypocrites pray the noon and afternoon prayers with the Muslims. The evening, night and morning prayers they pray at home. They don't pray them. Because they don't come to prayer. They pray noon and afternoon with the Muslims so they'll know we pray. Well, isn't this showing off? Isn't this showing off? Someone wants something from someone. Now I'm telling you what I lived through. Someone was going to ask me for money. I knew it. He's hanging around me. I go to the mosque, he goes to the mosque. Here, to the mosque. He prayed together with me.

Then he tells his trouble, after (?).

Well, we know that. Well now, isn't this showing off?

For a prayer to count as a prayer, if one prays with fifty percent of it contemplating Allah Almighty, that prayer you will have prayed as if you had contemplated Allah from start to finish. Yes, to what people say, pay no attention; whatever you hear, tell me, come to me, I'll tell you with verses. From here: On Friday, while at school, the Friday prayer was being performed. And only teachers and students were performing it. Nobody from outside is allowed to come into the school. Leaving the school is forbidden. So the students cannot go to the mosque. Can the Friday prayer be performed at this school, Hodja?

It can. Because a school is official. It's an official place. It's official. It's there. That place is not open to everyone. Officially it is open only to its own people. In the military there are military mosques too. Military, sir, imams lead the prayer. They lead the Friday prayer. Civilians from outside cannot come there. A school is like that too.

Yes. He said it right.

They have no other questions. Surah Al-A'raf, verse 155, we are reading this verse. This verse has been explained wrongly. we are reading it. Moses chose seventy men from his people for the time We appointed. Listen well. Where is the mistake? Learn that. When that terrible earthquake seized them, Moses said: O my Lord, had You willed, You would have destroyed them and me before. Because of the sin some fools among us committed, will You destroy us all? he says.

This is not something a person would say even to his mother or his father. He says this to Allah. A prophet says it.

He is defying Allah. He did not defy. This is a human being, after all. How do you explain this like this?

Whereas look. Moses chose seventy men from his people for the time We appointed. When that terrible earthquake seized them, Moses said: O my Lord, because of the sin some fools among us committed, had You willed, You would have destroyed them and me before. Look how beautiful. You would have destroyed them and me before. Because of these fools, he did it to us. I mean, these people. Had You made us all taste the punishment You give. Sir. Then what does it say here? The mistake continues. Will You destroy us all because of the sin the fools committed? Now he is asking Allah Almighty a question. This is nothing but Your trial.

By it You lead astray whom You will and guide whom You will, it says. How nice. These men explained the verses according to their own minds. Neither Allah Almighty's attribute of justice remains, nor His covenant with people, nor, sir, Allah's attribute of being Allah, that greatness; you are questioning Him. You know how the Jews go to the Wailing Wall and what betrayal they commit toward Allah, do you know? What they say there. This is exactly like that anyway. They talk the same way.

By it You lead astray whom You will and guide whom You will. You are our Master. Now he turns. So forgive us and have mercy on us. You are the best of those who forgive. You have already done what you did here.

Moses chose seventy men from his people for the time We appointed. When that terrible earthquake seized them, Moses said: O my Lord, because of the sin some fools among us committed, had You willed, You would have destroyed them and me before. This is nothing but Your trial. By it, whoever of us wills goes astray, and whoever wills finds the right path. You are our Master. Forgive us and have mercy on us. You are the best of those who forgive, we say. Yes. Now we have already written it here. We give its explanation. Here people don't really (?) the red from the green. What's here? He said this, he said that.

What's here? But when it's opened up, they understand how blasphemous they are. Now we have said: the place explained wrongly in this verse is this. By it You lead astray whom You will. Whom You will, You (?) the truth. And the correct one: by it whoever wills goes astray, and whoever wills finds the right path.

After our Lord sends people into the world, He does not will over people. Since every soul will earn reward and sin by the decisions it makes with its own will, if in the wrongly explained verses our Lord is to guide whom He wills or lead astray whom He wills, then, as He says in verse 172 of Surah Al-A'raf, why did He make a covenant with us?

Verse one hundred seventy-two reads like this. So that you would not say on the Day of Judgment, "We were unaware of this," He took the offspring to appear from the children of Adam as witnesses over themselves. This part has also been explained wrongly. We'll come to it anyway. It says He took (?) out of the loins of the children of Adam. He made a covenant with them. Do you know what this means? He says Allah Almighty is invisible in the world, and also that in the world Allah Almighty makes a covenant with people. Would anyone believe the word of a person who speaks like this? He contradicts his own word himself.

Whichever hodja you ask, even ask a madman, he'll say Allah is invisible. True, He sent us into a hidden world. Well then, when explaining the verse, look what it says here. In verse 172. Surah An-Nisa, Surah Al-Ma'idah,

Surah Al-An'am, Surah Al-A'raf. Let's come to verse 172 now.

I'll read the wrong one, mind you. So that you would not say on the Day of Judgment, "We were unaware of this," your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their offspring. Look, we in Turkey are offspring that came from the loins of the children of Adam. people, people living in the world, and He made them witnesses over themselves and said: Am I not your Lord? How would I know, I came into the world and you're calling yourself my Lord, how would I know, you were invisible; if You are visible, are You truly God? The nonsense of it, do you see what there is? they have hung the verses (?), filled them, made their falsehoods into rulings. On the Day of Judgment, so that you would not say "We were unaware of this," the offspring to appear from the children of Adam, it says; look, the verse is exactly like that: ve iz ehaze rabbüke min benî Âdeme from the children of Adam, with those who will appear, it says, who will appear, meaning not yet into the world have they come; created in the realm of Lahut, and what does He say to them now: ve eşhedehüm, We took them as witnesses, it says, enfüsihim, against their selves: e lestü bi rabbiküm, We are your Lord, We said, it says. Now here, where did Allah Almighty bring us out from? From the offspring of the children of Adam; that we too came into the world, He made a covenant. We'll come to it, we'll come there too, but we're still a few verses behind. So that you would not say on the Day of Judgment, "We were unaware of this," He made the offspring to appear from the children of Adam witnesses over themselves and said: I am your Lord. And they said: Yes, we bear witness to this. This part is also a very meaningful place, I mean not something everyone will understand. That's why people said yes there. Here they went astray, they say.

Whoever said yes there are those on the right; whoever went astray, those on the left. Well, Hodja, should we believe you now? Or should we believe these? Well, look what it says. Your Lord to them: yes. What does it say? I am your Lord. And they: Yes, we bear witness to this, they said, it says. Now should we believe you, or should we believe this, he says. Well, now I'll open this part up for you. We had already divided them into three classes there. You know the verse says, in Surah Al-Waqi'ah, what does it say? Ve küntüm ezvâcen selâseh. All the pairs, coming from one another, three classes, it says.

Fe eshâbü'l-meymeneti mâ eshâbü'l-meymeneh. O people of the right, good tidings to you. Ve eshâbü'l-meş'emeti, meş'emeh. O people of the left, woe to you. Ve's-sâbikûne's-sâbikûn, ülâike'l-mukarrabûn, fî cennâti'n-naîm. A third group, (?) the saints, the prophets, the martyrs, the (?) group. So we were divided there, you see. He knows it there. Not all of us said yes. Well, what is this yes? Look, the meaning of this yes you'll hardly find even if you go through the whole world. It exists. They are probably hidden too. These, like this, in Arabic, or without those realms being known and seen, these verses should not be explained.

The meaning of this yes here: Allah Almighty, look, there is not a single living being coming until the Day of Judgment about whom we would not know what it will do (?).

He knows that people will deny Him. He knows who will deny. Because He knows, on their behalf too: I created you, yes, I am your Master; that's the meaning. Otherwise they did not say yes; had they said yes, it would contradict this verse. They are denying unbelievers, it says, their hearts are restless and scattered, it says. So he denied. Where? He denied in that realm; he had his covenant written for him as destiny. Well, in this case, had he said yes, is it possible that a person step out of his destiny, come here, say yes there, and here step outside that destiny as he likes and play around? Why can't he? They lay a trap, and I lay a trap, He says, but I am the best of those who lay traps, He says, because he, (?), with the decisions he himself made, will step outside his destiny around him; Allah Almighty lays a trap for him so that he enters his destiny.

That is, the setbacks before him, let me say, the crookedness, his affairs not going smoothly, put him into his destiny. It doesn't mean doing him harm. That's why no one can step out of destiny. Whatever destiny he had Allah write, he will live that.

Yes.

We continue here: and He said: I am your Lord too; and to that, yes, we bear witness to this, they said. In verse 133 of Surah Ta-Ha, to this question, our Lord answers this question of ours so beautifully, this question; what does it say, look, in verse 134 of Surah Ta-Ha: Before the Quran; when you say before the Quran: the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, in the Quran, the word of Adam, the counterparts of the Quran's word. When the world came. Before We sent you into the world, before the Quran, when He says that, before sending you into the world, had We destroyed you with a punishment, you would have said this, it says.

If you were not going to say, "If only prophets and books had been sent to us, (?) this humiliation," it says. He would not have created these worlds and sent us. What is this? This brings out Allah Almighty's attribute of being Allah. What is Allah's attribute of being Allah? No one at all will call Him to account. When He threatens? No. When He punishes him? No. Whatever He asks about, the person will have done it in the world. He will show him the recompense of what he did, and he will be left without an answer. And this is Allah's attribute of being Allah. Yes. Had We destroyed them with a punishment before this, before the Quran, they would surely have said: O Lord, if only You had sent us a messenger, so that before falling into this disgrace and humiliation we had followed Your verses.

And in Surah Al-Qasas, verse 47: had they not been going to say, because of what they themselves did, when a calamity befalls them, "Our Lord, if only You had sent us prophets so that we had followed Your verses and been among the believers," We would not have sent you. Yes. In this case every person, in the realm of the Hereafter, his own wishes and desires he has made known to our Lord. And within those wishes and desires Allah Almighty wrote his feelings, just as they are, as destiny for him. Now he won't change any more. There, I am sending you to the world once more. I know that you won't change.

Go on. So that you don't say, "I saw You here, I could not believe in You." Allah Almighty (?) we see in His book. Look, the verse is clear anyway: I am your Lord, it says. Who would say this? I now told Ahmet: Ahmet, look, if I say I'm Metin Hodja in front of you, what will he say? True. Allah Almighty too, in front of people says I am your Lord, and people can't believe it. Why? I created man in the most beautiful form, He says. Lehü'l-esmâü'l- Hüsnâ: the most beautiful forms are Mine. He adorned us with the forms of His Essence. And Allah Almighty, too, with the forms of His Essence, being seen in human shape.

And because a person sees the one before him as a human, sees him in human form, you could not believe in your own Creator. He waited for the Lord of his own imagination. And what does Allah Almighty (?) to them? Had We willed, from the sky, among the clouds, with angels, (?) We would have made them prostrate. He left everyone free in his own will, because He gave a part of His spirit; in that spirit there is fame, glory, pride, arrogance, ego, grandeur and whim; whim, worldly whim. That's why, because of that self, a person does not accept the one before him as his creator; he waits for the Lord of his imagination. That's why, just as today they worship idols, just as they make idols. Yes, there are many subtleties there.

That's enough. Yes. Here Allah Almighty does not interfere with people at all in the world. Let one of them tell me that Allah interferes with people. He doesn't interfere, and they can't prove it, but I can prove it, I can prove that He doesn't interfere. In this world, are there no friends of Allah at all? In this world are there no saints, no friends of Allah? Just in Ramadan (?) Israel strikes Palestine; every Ramadan it oppresses them; the whole of Islam prays about them, against them. Why doesn't it happen? For years they have been praying for centuries. I mean, for years; maybe not centuries, but for years they have been praying.

Muslim blood is still flowing. Oppression of Islam still exists. There is oppression against Islam. A man burns the Quran. Nothing happens. Oh, Allah's word: you'll burn My word, My book, and I'll just sit quietly? Nothing happens. Why? You will come to Me, He says. I already know what you will do, He says. I know what you will do. Well, why did You send me? What kind of person you are; in that verse 134 of Surah Ta-Ha, or in verse 47 of Surah Al-Qasas, so that you don't say to Me, "Had You sent me to a hidden world, look what fine worship I would have done for You there," He said; it doesn't befit My glory to be questioned, He says, a deficiency in Me; Allah Almighty is complete and perfect.

Ah, now (?): He created these worlds and brought you here too. Here everyone's actual deeds, their speech, looking, smelling, tongue, hands and feet, everything they do is recorded as their own responsibility. Go on now, ask Allah whatever you want. It's all before you.

The world.

So here in the world Allah Almighty does not interfere with people. Doesn't our Lord, removing people's own will from them, use His own will over people? Does He use it (?)? The Diyanet tells me; I have the Diyanet's written paper.

The will is (?), that's correct, they say. You know it too. Oh, the lawyer knows it too. Their writings together. The will is (?), they say. They say it right. Right. But Allah, when He removes a person's will, He says, (?), He says. If You remove my will, You are Allah, You make me do whatever You want; if You use Your own will over me and make me commit a crime, what is my sin? Would it befit Your justice? Discriminating between people, would it befit Your justice? He says to the Prophet: whom do they call a tyrant? A father who discriminates among his children is a tyrant too, it says in His verse. If You say this: You created these worlds and sent one percent of Your mercy to the world.

Ninety-nine percent You kept for Yourself, to use there. Well, what crime is this? What slander against You? He'll remove my will. He'll use His own will over me. So He'll put whomever He wills into Paradise. And whomever He wills into Hell. Oh, what a fine state of affairs. Can such a (?) be written?

These people don't even fear Allah. They don't know what Allah is.

Yes.

While the verses are being explained, may our Lord grant us good comprehension and good understanding so that we explain the verses comprehending them, according to their meanings, he has said. Yes.

Verse 156 of Surah Al-A'raf has also been explained wrongly. The verses are not wrong. Don't misunderstand. A single letter, a single dot of a verse no one can change. Because Allah Almighty: We sent down the Quran, and We are its guardian. Neither damage nor distortion can be done to a single letter of it. What is damage? Scribbling over it, doing this and that. What is distortion? Changing it. As the priests changed the verses of the Gospel or of the Torah. Those who sell Allah's verses for money, for material gain, it says.

Write good for us in this world and in the Hereafter. Amen. Beautiful. Indeed we have turned to You. We won't turn to anyone else, of course. The Master of the worlds, who created us. Allah said: Whom I will, I afflict with punishment. Whom He wills He'll leave to punishment; why did You make a covenant with me? Why did You leave me free in my own will? In the freedom of my own will, why did You give me what I willed? Whatever I willed; even though He helps, if I willed evil, even though He shows the right; if I willed the bad, give it to him anyway: give me, I want this. Now does this befit, these words? This is verse 172 of Surah Al-A'raf: the verse is a knot like this, a knot, a knot, the knot of falsehood.

How beautifully, to remove falsehood from religion, since He will not send another prophet, since He will continue His religion until the Day of Judgment, Allah Almighty has brought, has tied falsehood to one verse. It also has side aspects. After they come to know these, after, (?) until the Day of Judgment it will continue, every hundred years, every two hundred years, Allah Almighty raises a (?), and they too remove these wrongly explained verses in the Quran, those falsehoods, from religion. Whom I will, I afflict with punishment; ah, how nice. And My mercy encompasses everything. His mercy both encompasses everything and, when He wills, punishment.

This is how I understood it. Let's say Mustafa Kayırcan is a very merciful person. Very merciful. He gives what one wants, I mean he gives. If he'll throw into hell when he wishes, then there is (?) in him. There are certain states in him. So one cannot trust his mercy. One won't find mercy. One cannot trust his mercy. In his threat, he'll throw into hell. Whereas: My mercy in the Hereafter is only for the believer.

Look. My mercy in the Hereafter is only for the believer. Not even for the Muslim. For the believer. Who is the believer? One who has passed through the nafs-i ammara, the nafs-i lawwama, the nafs-i mulhima, the nafs-i mutmainna. O soul at rest, your Lord pleased with you and you pleased with your Lord, enter among My servants, enter My Paradise: the people He says this to; these are Muslims. He separates these. Then, then again with His mercy He separates people. With His mercy. Who are these? The Muslims. Come here, He says. He calls them to account. This time His justice is manifested. Upon them.

What does He do? They will go to Hell. They'll serve their punishment for a certain time and enter Paradise again. Who are these? People who passed to the Hereafter as Muslims and were sinners.

So when He says my mercy in the Hereafter is only for the believer, directly, first their account will be seen, and they will (?) be called to account, still right away into Paradise, off to their places. We see the account swiftly. Serîu'l-hisâb, it says. We see it swiftly. What will He do? Well, Ahmet, Mehmet, Hasan, Hüseyin and so on, all together. Come here. They will all come.

He'll say to the angel: You take these. Take these to such-and-such a place. You take these. Take them to such-and-such a place. You take these. Take them to such-and-such a place. In Paradise. Who are these? That's two paradises. The Gardens of Eden beneath which rivers flow. Sir, the gardens of the righteous. There are registers there. Registers. And in the registers the names of Ahmet, Mehmet, Hasan, Hüseyin, all of them, are written, their addresses are written. They go to those addresses and are handed over. They hand them over. This world is exactly a likeness and shadow of the Hereafter.

Isn't there a registry office here? Doesn't it know where you live? Doesn't it know your house number, how many people live there?

Yes. This world is a likeness and a shadow. How do you know? By Allah, by Allah, I saw it. I saw it, I saw it: the bad too, the addresses too, the entry into Paradise too. I mean, these verses cannot be (?) like this. Those who don't know this verse; you can't explain it with Arabic, that's impossible.

Someone who knows a little Arabic gets up to write books, to write a Quran.

I'm reading this wrongly explained verse again. Good for us in this world and in the Hereafter. All right, my Allah, be my Lord. My God, Master of the worlds. We will beseech Him. Were it not for your prayers, what would We do with you, He says. He says it right. We will make our helplessness known to Allah Almighty. He is the Master of the universe. The decision He gives is between these two (?). May Allah protect us. There is no crookedness. Indeed we have turned to You. Allah said: Whom I will, I afflict with punishment, punishment. And My mercy encompasses everything. I will write it for those who are mindful of Me, who give zakat, and who believe in Our verses, He says.

Explain this verse like this, so that people understand too. Write good for us in this world and in the Hereafter; indeed we have turned to You. Allah said: Whoever wishes disaster from Me, I afflict him with punishment. Wishes disaster. Hodja, haven't you gone astray now too? Who wishes disaster?

Allah Almighty tells you: pray, give zakat, fast, if you have money go on Hajj, don't lie, don't commit adultery, don't drink alcohol, don't gamble, have nothing to do with interest, don't take interest.

Thank Me, He says. Look now. Thank Me.

Then, in the following verse, He says this: Would We ever decrease the wealth of one who gives thanks? Allah keeps pouring on you, He pours. So who wishes disaster? Now if I go against the laws of this state, if I go and swindle Ahmet or Mehmet, if I go and wound a person, kill him, even if his family, his mother and father, or his wife and children forgive me, the law doesn't forgive. Public prosecution: come here, it says. It catches you. Because you went against the laws, straight to prison with you. Now, did the judge send you to prison, or did you send yourself to prison? So did you want this disaster, or did Allah want it?

Now they have explained a verse wrongly. It says: germs are Allah's soldiers. I send them to whom I will, He says. Yes, but it says this: germs are My soldiers, I send them to whom I will. And I say: germs are Allah's soldiers; He sends them to whoever wants them. To whoever wants: if you go and spend time in coffeehouses, in taverns, in gambling dens, if you live a (?) life, set your mind on the world; in the world, when you did this it didn't work, when you did that it didn't work. if you try to put your finger on your child's destiny, sir, and say it went like this, like that, if you don't lean your back on Allah, if you don't trust in what comes from Allah, if you don't know patience, you'll melt away in that stress.

Did Allah melt you, or did you melt yourself? This time He'll also call you to account for giving you that body. What does it say? You will be called to account for how you used the trust I gave you, it says. What trust? The body, the body, a trust. We are not only a body; inside us, that is, covering our soul, our appearance in matter that provides our visible form. I clothed myself in flesh and bone, it says. I appeared as Yunus. In fact what drives this body is our soul. When you come into My presence with a driver, He says. Whom does it drive? The body. With whom? With your soul; the driver, the soul, comes along.

It goes on and on. Never mind. Let's go into this.

So: write good for us in this world. And in the Hereafter; indeed we have turned to You. Allah said: Whoever wishes disaster from Me, I afflict him with punishment. And My mercy encompasses everything. I will write it for those who are mindful of Me, who give zakat, and who believe in Our verses. Now, Allah gives no person a disaster. He will give. But this is general; here, personal. What is general? We test you with your lives and your wealth, He says.

Nothing is perfect in every way. We did not come into this world for everything to be perfect. We came to prove what kind of person we are. We will live with plenty, we will live with want. If in plenty we say Allah, and in want we say Allah, if in plenty we say Allah won't put on our back a load we cannot bear,

if in want we say the same; because you can't carry money, it's a load, you go veering left and right, you jump left and right like a rabbit; in want too you turn to rebellion; in both, you wish for Allah's mercy, you will have passed Allah's test upon you. Sir, the wrongly explained place in this verse is this, we say: Whom I will, I afflict with punishment. And the correct one: Whoever wishes disaster from Me, I afflict him with punishment. Do people wish disaster? They do. How do they wish it? Our Lord sent people into the world so that they would witness what kind of person they are. In this case a person does not listen to our Lord's command.

He wanders through the world aimless and irresponsible. He knows no manners, no decency, no law. Amid pleasure and indulgence he tramples people's rights. If he oppresses and goes far in oppression, our Lord gives these people disasters so that they come to their senses. So that they come to their senses. Look what it says. We give non-Muslims three or two disasters a year, it says. Just as they make pacts and help one another, if only they asked Us for help too, it says. That's the verse. Now we went through a catastrophe. Eleven of our cities were destroyed. Thanks be to Allah, as a nation we all helped together.

For its recovery. Among them there are those who pray to Allah too. Among them there are also those who thank people for their help and don't remember Allah. There are. But while I was walking between Safa and Marwa, a handful of people were running there like this. Allah Almighty: do you see these people? It's for this handful of people, He says, that I keep these worlds alive, He says.

A handful of people. That handful of people, certain people who pray to Allah, Allah Almighty has spread these people across time. With their prayers this world will live on until the Day of Judgment.

Yes.

In the verse our Lord says this: We test you sometimes with your wealth and sometimes with your lives (?). There are many similar verses as well. That's why people pass through these tests and, after proving what kind of person they are, pass on to the Hereafter. If people living in the world do not listen to our Lord's commands, then of course they will have wished the punishment of Hell for themselves. The correct form of the verse, as we explained above: whoever wishes disaster from Me, (?) punishment. Whoever goes outside Allah's verses. That's how it is.

now, in this age, we are living this; I see it, but you maybe don't see it, I don't know; there are surely those who see. Allah Almighty says in His verse: before your eyes every day hundreds of miracles (?), and you don't see them, He says. today, what I'm talking about, isn't disaster appearing? Isn't this disaster appearing?

People were not exposed to this oppression by their own wishes. They were not exposed to these disasters. Now I'll explain.

People have uncovered their private parts. And what does Allah Almighty say to them, to us? He doesn't say it to them. To all people. Pay attention to covering. Covering is more suitable so that you are not harmed, He says. Look, covering. You throw off covering. Uncover your private parts. And when a person pesters you, not every Ahmet or Mehmet can master his nafs; when someone else pesters you, either he takes your life, or you suffer oppression. Or you get beaten. Or, even in family life, you go and file a complaint against your husband. If your husband tells you the good, Allah's way, he's ruining your family life.

Off you go, stay away from the house for a month. And you live as you please. Well, isn't this oppression? A woman gets married. Most of the women marrying today. Most of today's girls who marry too: if it suits my mind, it suits; if it doesn't, I'll split up. So what? I got divorced, (?). Then to earn money she'll sleep with whomever she wants; to live her life, she'll go along with whomever she wants. Most of today's people are like this. They marry with these feelings. An honorable, decent, (?) family, you won't find one easily. They exist, but you need to research, to ask around.

we have finished, we have come to the point of finishing with religion; Allah's mercy carries us along. Surah Al-A'raf, verse 163, we have come to it. I'm reading the wrong one: ask them about the state of the people of the town by the sea. Who are these? The Saturday people. What did they do? They didn't listen to Allah's command; they built a breakwater. One day the fish were plentiful; the other six days of the week, none; breakwaters, the other days they would fish; supposedly they'd trap the fish. And what does my Lord do? He turns their forms into monkeys. Yes. When they showed disrespect on the Sabbath and transgressed. Because on the day they kept the Sabbath, the fish would appear and come to them in shoals.

On the day they did not keep the Sabbath they would not come. Thus We were testing them because they went astray. That's a true test. This is a test. Now we'll read the correct version of this.

The mistake here: when it says We were testing, here Allah Almighty doesn't know what will become of them, and tests them like this to try them out. That's the meaning it gives. Now let's read the correct one and see what comes out. Ask them about the state of the people of the town by the sea. When they showed disrespect on the Sabbath and transgressed. Because on the day they kept the Sabbath the fish would appear, appear and come to them in shoals. On the day they did not keep the Sabbath they would not come. Because they went astray, so as to make them witness themselves what kind of people they were, they were passing through a test.

We open that part in parentheses. They were passing through a test so as to prove what kind of people they were. Because Allah Almighty knows the truth about them. What is this like? Doesn't a teacher know his student? However many students he has. Doesn't he know roughly what that student will get? He knows. Doesn't he know what grade he'll get? And Allah Almighty is the Creator. He gave a part of His spirit. He has penetrated to the very essence of that soul. He knows its wishes and desires just as they are. Look what His verse says. What you need, which is in the remotest corner of your heart and which you yourselves are unaware of, I am aware of, He says.

I know that too, He says. Go on.

God forbid.

If Allah withdrew His gaze from these worlds for a moment, the worlds would collapse into each other in a moment. Allah Almighty has attributes. Absent-mindedness does not take Him. Absent-mindedness. Sleep does not take Him. He is aware of everything.

The wrongly explained place in this (?) is this. Thus We were testing them because of those who went astray. And the correct one: because they went astray, so as to make them witness themselves what kind of people they were, We were putting them through a test. Now, since people have no knowledge, what do these do? They were passing through a test. We were putting them through a test. What's wrong with that? Now we open up what it is. Allah Almighty created the worlds. Everything He created until the Day of Judgment, the tribes of men and jinn, angels, animals, in short, whatever He created from the atom to the globe, until the Day of Judgment He has programmed these worlds.

Of everything He created, He knows what they will do day by day, in hours and minutes, and creates causes for them. Causes. A cause for the food of all the creatures in this universe, for all people's doings, causes they will deserve. In what he does, within those causes, through actual deeds, he will prove what kind of person he is. And (?).

Our minds cannot grasp this. Allah, Allah. We cannot carry it in our minds. Because this weight (?) that scale. Yes.

In this case, according to the verse where our Lord says: they lay a trap, and We lay a trap, We are the best of those who lay traps, no created being can step outside this program.

If it does, our Lord, by putting them into their destinies, makes His creatures witness what kind of beings they are. In this respect He is the best of those who lay traps. That is, He does not wrong His creatures by laying traps for them. Created humans and the tribe of jinn, by being put into their own destinies, each one proving what kind of person he is, in the world are called to account for what they did. In this case our Lord does not test anyone, anyone, to learn what kind of being or what kind of person he is. Here the meaning of the test: so that people witness what they did, He creates certain attributes for them.

Our Lord, who knows whether they will carry out Allah's commands or not, makes them witness themselves. That they deserve, by His justice, the punishment Allah Almighty will give; it is so He punishes or rewards them by making them witness it themselves.

We continue our lesson. We have come to verse 169 of Surah Al-A'raf. The secret will be solved from 172 anyway. In 172 of this Surah Al-A'raf we already tell the events.

What do we tell? Let's see, we wrote its points here. Look, we wrote its points.

What do we say? We'll learn here. One. Allah Almighty, us, for what did He create us? These. They didn't separate this part, look. Here it's together. Yes.

For what did Allah Almighty create us? That's right.

Where were people created in the realm of the Hereafter? In the realm of the Hereafter.

Why did He make a covenant with people?

Our Lord, who made a covenant with people, even though He knows what people are, why did He send us to the world without putting us into Paradise or Hell there? When we open these secrets here, these events to you, these meanings, when we open them here, you'll understand these events better. Yes.

now we read the wrong part of verse 169: After them, in return for distorting the verses, taking the goods of this worthless world and saying we'll be forgiven anyway, inheriting the Book, some evil people came. If a similar gain came to them again, they'd take that too. Well, in the Book, about Allah, had He not taken a pledge from them that they would say nothing but the truth? And had they not read in the book "kini"? What is in the book, had they not read it? They made the split wrongly. here it comes out like "kini"; we'll join this part: had they not read what is in the book? The abode of the Hereafter is better for those who are mindful.

Do you still not understand? We'll read the wrongly explained place here.

Let's not read the verse. After them, in return for distorting the verses, taking the goods of this worthless world and saying we'll be forgiven anyway, some evil people came who inherited the Book. If a similar gain came to them again, they would take that too. Did Allah not tell you in the Book not to speak anything but the truth, that the Messenger among you is the truth, to them; had they not read it? The abode of the Hereafter is better for those who are mindful. Do you still not understand? it says. The wrongly explained place in this verse is this: Well, had He not taken a pledge from them in the Book that they would say nothing about Allah but the truth?

And had they not read what is in the Book? This is the wrongly explained place. And the correct one: did Allah not tell you in the Book? He did not take a pledge. If He took a pledge and wrote their destinies like the pledge He took, they cannot step outside that pledge. And no one easily distinguishes the mistake here either. He took a pledge is one thing; He had said is another. Look, Allah Almighty says, in the Quran He tells us: do this and this, He says. Is that so? He did not take a pledge from me that I would do it like this. I wanted my own wish, my own aim from Allah Almighty and gave my pledge.

And He gave me whatever aim my pledge had.

A question like this may come to your mind.

How do we know, Hodja, that I didn't want something else and Allah, as He Himself wished, gave me this destiny? This does come to a person's mind.

I know my covenant too. My covenant. I knew this world too. The world I came to. I know how it will be too. That's why I say there is a dark world. It will come. A world where morals have collapsed. It will come.

He helps too. (?) come and go. Come and go like an ordinary person. Let my rank be high, and let me come in this world, I said.

But you will slip, He says. If I slip, protect me with Your mercy. And take my soul before I slip, I said. Look, do you see the covenant? The covenant. The covenant.

In this case, from whom did He take a pledge, and that person stepped outside that pledge?

to distinguish this part one must know those realms, see those realms. These are not written haphazardly. They are all (?). They have all attributed qualities to Allah Almighty.

They have brought Allah and put Him into the heads of Ahmet, Mehmet, Hasan, Hüseyin, into that mind; as if He talks with him, like with a person in front of him, what he himself said, what feelings he has, he took those feelings his own way and made the verse like that. what does it say? let's read it once more; this so-called, wrongly explained in the verse: well, in the Book, in the Book, about Allah, that they would say nothing but the truth, had He not taken a pledge from them? Allah, Allah, Allah took a pledge from them that they would say nothing else in the Book, and had they not read in the book, in the book, what is in the book, it says.

And the correct one: did Allah not tell you in the Book? Had He not said it in the Book? And had he not read the Book? If only you had read it. You read novels, you read stories, you watch television, you go to your summer house, you enjoy yourself. Fear Allah, man. You say (?). At least read Allah's book once.

Let me tell you an example here. I'll tell you an example about a hodja now. A man invites a hodja to his house. In Ramadan. They eat, they drink. The man also had some money on the table.

After the meal the man, the host, goes to make ablution. The window is open, the wind blows. The man's money gets scattered. The man picks up the money.

He puts it inside the Quran. So that when he reads the Quran he'll see his money here, he says.

They eat, they drink. Of course (?) and so on. He gets up and leaves. The man looks for his money; the money is gone. When he (?), he says: it got mixed up there. He knows the money was there. Did I make a mistake, he wonders. Let it not be a slander against the hodja, he says. The money isn't here, he says. (?) says: he took it and left. The other one says: it must be so, because the money was there, I saw it too. No money. A year passes, a year. Again the hodja he invites. This time he doesn't show the hodja the due attention. He shows no interest. The hodja says: I see you are a bit sad. I hope all is well, he says. Well, Hodja, he says, I didn't want to tell you, but, you know, there was money here on the table, he says.

I'm not saying you took it, he says. I couldn't find the money there, he says. That, he says, I've had it on my mind a bit, he says. The hodja starts to cry. The man is surprised too. He says, Hodja, why are you crying? Hodja, why are you crying? The hodja is sobbing. Alas, he says, my beloved brother, he says, I love you like my own life, he says. But not even once, he says, have I taken this Quran and read it, he says. The wind scattered this money, he says, so I, so that you'd find your money there while reading the Quran, put it inside the Quran, he says. So a year has passed, he says, and I haven't opened this book either, he says.

Which of us opens the Quran at home and reads it? We have all (?) hanging on the wall. We put it there.

Yes. How nice, now look. A comparison.

Allah took a pledge, took a pledge. They didn't keep their word. (?) He read it but didn't keep his word. Moreover, He says: did I not tell you in the Book? This book is my book, after all. This book is the Muslims' book. It's the book of me, you, Ahmet, Mehmet, Ayşe, Fatma. These are our books. Who opens and reads this? Is there no one who reads it? There are plenty, though. I'm saying it to those who don't read. They have gone astray now.

Yes.

From whom did Allah Almighty take a pledge, that they were able to step outside their pledge? Allah's taking a pledge from people: making a covenant with people, He wrote each person's own wishes and desires for him as destiny. Out of the destinies our Lord wrote for people, which created being has been able to step? In the wrongly explained place, our Lord took a pledge from people, and these, stepping outside that pledge, our Lord; our Lord warns them; such a situation arises. At the same time, in return for the pledge our Lord took from people, a situation arises where He could not give their characters (?), and so they attribute deficient attributes to our Lord.

Those who write translations of the verses by their own minds without understanding their meanings, mixing "took a pledge" with the word He said, have attributed deficient attributes to our Lord. But had we not opened its footnote: "took a pledge", what does it say there? He said. took a pledge, said; what's wrong with that, one says; a person can't distinguish this part. "Took a pledge" goes back to el estü bi rabbiküm: He made a covenant with them; no one can step outside that destiny. But when it says "He said": ah, Allah's; guide me to the right path; Allah Almighty does not guide to the right path. At the end of Al-Fatiha, at the end of Al-Fatiha they say and write: guide me to the right path; show me the right path. Did you want Me to show you the right path?

I did. And I am sending you the Quran. There, the right path for you, He says. Whose fault is it?

How clear is that?

We are responsible, responsible.

(?) Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, we have come to that verse. Next week, if Allah grants, we'll explain it here in detail. The knot of the matter will be untied here anyway, God willing.

Sir, the time is up anyway.

Lillahi Teâlâ el-Fatiha.

Amen.