Talk of 19 August 2023

Al-Nahl Surah, he says we stopped at (?). At Al-Hijr, at Al-Nahl.

Right. What Ömer Sefa says is right. We stopped at Al-Nahl. Surah Al-Nahl. "For We took revenge on them too." We covered that too. Taking revenge on the nafs. Yes.

Yes, Ömer Sefa. 209, Sefa's (?) surah (?), he says we stopped at it. Yes.

Surah Al-Hijr, verse 79: "We took revenge on them too," we said; we explained this last lesson, I think. Our Ömer Sefa says we stopped at verse 36. We are reading the wrongly rendered verse: "Indeed, We — 'Serve Allah and avoid the taghut' —" here taghut has two meanings: Satan is called taghut, and also the two-legged devils of human kind. "so that they would command: avoid the taghut, We sent a messenger to every nation," it says. To every nation. How beautifully it says it.

Was He going to send a book to every nation? He said that last time.

The difference between the nabis and the messengers. We explained it. Since He sent a messenger to every nation, in one narration 124,000 messengers came. Were there 124,000 books? But whatever Allah said at first, at the last it is that; He sent their messengers without books, in a way they could understand. These are nabis. "Indeed, so that they would command, 'Serve Allah and avoid the taghut,' We sent a messenger to every nation. Allah guided some of them." Now, just here. Allah should not steer anyone to the right path. Since Allah — now look here, look at the contradiction. If we think about it, what does it say?

"Indeed, so that they would command, 'Serve Allah and avoid the taghut,' We sent a messenger to every nation." He sends a messenger to every nation. For what? For worshipping Allah. "Allah guided some of them," it says. If Allah is going to guide some of them, why did You send a messenger? Guide them all.

Do you see the absurdity? "He guided some of them," it says. If He guided them, there is no need for a messenger. Guide me too.

Yes. "And some of them deserved misguidance." All right, that person did not come to the right path. It is in the person's own will. "Travel through the land and see what the end of the deniers was." The end of this verse is normally correct.

Three hundred, two hundred nine. Yes. Now we read the correct one here. "Indeed, so that they would command, 'Serve Allah and avoid the taghut,' We sent to every nation a messenger. Some of them entered Allah's right path. How beautiful. Not "We guided them to the right path". Not "We guided some of them to the right path". Some of them entered the right path.

And some of them chose misguidance. Travel through the land and see what the end of the deniers was."

The wrongly rendered part here is this: "Allah guided some of them to the right path.

And some of them deserved misguidance." The correct one: "Some of them came to Allah's right path. And some of them chose misguidance." Does Allah Almighty discriminate among people, guiding some people to the right path and pushing others into misguidance? Is this befitting of Allah? Does our Lord discriminate among people? In His unerring justice there is much wisdom in people's favour. Allah Almighty created people incomplete and fallible. The reason is that when people err, realise their error and repent, when they turn to our Lord, our Lord, with His attribute of accepting repentance, knowing His servant's essence, forgives him, as He makes known to us in many verses. He created us incomplete anyway.

Because of our incomplete creation, we may do wrong thinking we are doing right. Or we may do wrong knowingly. In that case, since our Lord's consent is not in the wrong, when we sense that we have sinned, when one says, "O Allah, forgive me", when one says, "I will not do it again", our Lord forgives people. If people had not sinned on earth — Allah Almighty decrees thus: "We would destroy you and create servants who sin," He says. Yes. In that case, would our Lord discriminate among people, drive one to guidance and the other into misguidance? Every soul will see the recompense of what it did.

Allah Almighty, at Kalu Bela, in the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, when He said, "I am your Lord", people divided there into three classes. Whatever wish and desire each soul made of our Lord, our Lord wrote people's wishes and desires for them as their destiny. When people come to this world, the scripts they had written for themselves they play out in this world like an actor, and so what kind of person they are they prove to themselves. Isn't Şerzim Efendi here? They went to the garden. They went to the garden.

Al-Nahl Surah, verse 37 is where we have come.

I am reading the wrong renderings: "O My Messenger, even if you are very eager for their guidance, know that Allah, if He does not will the one He leads astray, does not guide him." This is entirely a text written as a fabrication of the human mind, words unbefitting of Allah. Now why does this resemble — a factory owner employs workers, and the manager is very fond of some people, but those people are hostile to the manager, or, among the people the manager likes, there are people the factory owner does not like, and he tells the manager: "However much you love him, (?), I don't like him. (?), I won't do anything for him. Yes, him I will dismiss from the factory." These are things that happen in life among people. For example, to a mayor his deputies say, "Let's hire this man." He looks and doesn't hire him, thinking he's no use to me.

Words like this — they mean this when they say it. They don't know that every soul had itself programmed by its own wish and desire. Yes. These are words written by a human fabricator. What does it say? "O My Messenger, even if you are very eager for their guidance, Allah does not guide the one He leads astray unless He wills. They have no helpers either," it says.

Now here, many verses you must know.

Here you will open this together with many verses. It is clear they have no knowledge of the Quran at all. It is clear these people have no knowledge of the Quran. One: they don't know about the covenant. The covenant. That Allah Almighty wrote everyone's wish and desire for them as destiny. Second: that when Allah Almighty said "I am your Lord", they divided into those of the right and those of the left. In the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, sir, in the realm of Lahut all souls into three groups were divided: the class of the Muqarrabun, those of the right and those of the left. So there are many more verses here.

These must be known so you can open this verse. What does it say? "(?), if Allah does not will the one He leads astray, He does not guide him." Allah neither leads anyone astray, nor has He any willing over people.

"They have no helpers either," it says. Now one must also know the meaning of this verse here so that they can open this verse. When it says they have no helpers either, in the hereafter Allah Almighty, for those He has cut off from His mercy — even at the station of intercession, even if it be the prophets — no one will help. That is the meaning of that verse: They are alone and without anyone there. You must know these. You must know the verses. You will open it accordingly. Where are these? Nowhere. He fits Allah into his own head. "How it must be, it must be like this." That's how he opens it. And then they say every commentator gives a meaning according to his own taste.

Is it a human in front of you, that you give meaning to a human's words? Astonishing! If you give this such a wrong meaning, in the Quran He sent as a mercy to the worlds, if you tell all people your error, saying Allah said it like this, are you not slandering Allah? What kind of word is this?

Yes. These are men of religion. And people have magnified them in their eyes; they've become great scholars. This verse's correct version is: "O My Messenger, even if you are very eager for their guidance, know that whoever strays from Allah — whoever strays from Allah, while in that state, cannot attain guidance." Who are these? Those who do not know Allah. Those who said, "You are not the Lord." At the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm. Those who did not believe in Allah when He said, "I am your Lord." What does it say? "My beloved, don't mind them denying you. In their time they betrayed Me too. They denied Me too," He says.

"They are lying unbelievers," He says. You must know all these verses. You must know what it means in this verse. You give it a meaning accordingly, man. Astonishing. Oh. (?) these people. Now if a non-Muslim tried to become Muslim and read these like this — a non-Muslim's mind works. He examines, I mean. Well, if Allah is going to lead astray whom He wills and guide whom He wills, what business do I have here, he will say. I'll (?) and look to this: I'll do a few things to please Allah and pass on.

The wrongly rendered part in this verse is this: "Allah does not guide the one He leads astray unless He wills." The correct one: "Whoever strays from Allah cannot attain guidance while in that state." Right. If you keep going astray, how will you find the path of truth? But if you repent, if you turn back, come here.

Because the meaning of Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, is not known, all the errors arose because they did not understand the meaning of this verse. Our Lord made a covenant with people at Kalu Bela. He addressed people, saying, "I am your Lord." People divided there into three groups. One, those of the right: fe eshabü'l-meymeneti ma eshabü'l-meymeneh. Two, those of the left: ve eshabü'l-meş'emeti ma eshabü'l-meş'emeh. Three, the class of the Muqarrabun: when He says ve eshab-ı meymeneti ma eshab-ı meymeni, and es-sabikune's-sabikun, ülaike'l-mukarrebun fi cennati'n-naim. This third group is the group of the foremost.

The group of saints, prophets, martyrs, martyrs. The classes we mentioned correspond to Surah Al-Waqi'ah, verses 7, 8, 9 and 10. In that case, every soul had its own wishes and desires written for it as destiny. Since a person's attaining guidance or denying according to his covenant lies within his own will and his own responsibility, a person by his deeds lives his own destiny and is himself responsible before our Lord.

In that case the correct rendering of the verse is:

"Whoever strays from Allah cannot attain guidance while in that state." Whoever strays from Allah. Right. If he repents, he comes of course. He becomes Muslim. Or attains Allah's mercy. We have come to Surah Al-Nahl, verse 71.

"Allah gave some of you more abundant provision than others."

This — as I said earlier, in a factory the manager sees the worker, or there's someone he likes and he says to him, "Your salary here, how much is it?" "15,000 lira." (?) 50,000 lira.

Because he opened this according to his own head. What does it say? "Allah gave some of you more abundant provision than others." And I say: "You gave him abundant provision and cut mine short. Because You cut my provision short, I can't worship You as much as him." Or I'd say, "I couldn't do the worship I was going to do." Would I say it? I would, I would. I'd say it. I have no qualms at all. And Allah Almighty commends those who say so. Why? We're speaking against Allah. Ah, the commending: "I am free of deficient attributes. Every question that could come to human minds, I wrote out in the Quran," He says. "You should have looked there," He says.

Look how beautiful.

Then I blame myself. So I failed to look, failed to understand. Well, without looking in the Quran, how do you write this text for the whole Islamic world like this, denying Allah, accusing Allah: Allah gave some abundant provision? Now I'll explain that to you.

Without seeing these places, it is impossible for a person to open these verses.

Yes.

"Those given abundant provision do not hand over their provision to those under them so as to make themselves equal with them in this. Is it that, this being so, they deny Allah's blessing?" Now superiority comes out here. "They don't give provision to those under them and keep themselves equal," it says.

Did you understand anything? Yes. Read it again. "Those given abundant provision do not hand over their provision to those under them so as to make themselves equal with them in this." So here: covet money. Have money, have wealth. The needy people under you — (?). You are not equal to them, it says. Because you have wealth. Today the greed of the Jew and the Mason for money comes from this. Whoever has a lot of money, his degree in Masonry rises. Yes. "This being so, do you deny Allah's blessing?" it says. Now this one (?), you didn't give to that one, you gave the other a lot, you gave this one little, and now he denies too, of course: "Why did you give that much, and to me you gave like this?" wouldn't he say? Now this someone tells: someone's father bought him a flat. You know him.

The other one raised the flag of revolt, he says. The other one, my son, revolted, he says. Why? He gave that one more, that one less. And people in this situation — if Allah does injustice and people in this situation rise in revolt, will Allah make people revolt against Himself? Will He make them (?)? Will He give some little, some a lot? I really don't know how they've opened these verses.

According to the covenants they gave — look now, according to the covenants they gave — some of you have more abundant provision than others. According to the covenants. According to one's covenant. I'll open that part. "Those given abundant provision do not hand over their provision to those under them so as, in this matter, to make themselves equal with them. This being so, do they deny Allah's blessing?" Now, people's greed and avarice, people rising by stepping on others' backs, on their shoulders, people saying "me" of themselves, and, sir, "compared to them, I employed so many men," against that one, sir, more securing superiority — in terms of material things, not in terms of faith, mind you.

If it were in terms of faith, perhaps the man beside him is higher than him in Allah's sight, more exalted. He says the wrongly rendered part in this verse: "Allah gave some of you more abundant provision than others." The correct one: "According to the covenants they gave, some of you have more abundant provision than others." Now, when Allah Almighty made the covenant with people, the times they would go to He shows them. Right from the time of the Prophet, He shows the situations part by part. A person, within his own understanding, his own grasp, his own life, the time he likes chooses himself. That's one.

Will he employ men according to his character? Employ workers? Or be a worker? I mean, he says, "Let me come to the world like this, and go like this." I mean, "Let me earn my bread and go," he says. "Let me earn my bread and go." Some say, "Let me employ them." I see these. That's his own character. "Let me set up a factory, let men work for me." There are these. Some in the vain desire of the nafs, pride, arrogance. I mean, going the bad way with wealth. Some spending in the way of Allah. And some say, "Let me just come and go like this." Is there proof of this? There's living proof, living. When I was running the factory, I had a neighbour from Kastamonu across from my house.

He works at the factory too. I said, "Look, your house is here. Across the way. You work here. I pay your salary. Let me pay you extra for watchman duty too," I said. "From your house, look — don't come, don't sleep here. Keep an eye on this place from there." "Me?" he said, "I don't get it. I know my salary," he said. "Just give me my salary, that's enough," he said. There you go. I immediately the feelings of the people in that realm, what they wished from Allah, and in that way he lives, that way he goes. His children grew up, his children work. He gets to that state and goes. Every person has a nature he wished for from Allah.

Allah Almighty gives him those goods according to that nature. He gives that livelihood. Yes.

If people, unaware of Surah Al-A'raf, verse 172, lacking comprehension of its meanings, open the meanings of verses according to their own minds, they thus accuse our Lord of committing injustice among His servants. As I said earlier, these are the meanings of Surah Al-A'raf. Our Lord, in the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, after saying "I am your Lord", when our souls were divided into three groups, He made a covenant with them one by one. He showed people the conditions and life of the times they would go to in the world. Whatever time people wished and desired, our Lord, since He knows the secrets of people's hearts, wrote their wishes and desires for them as destiny.

In that case, people who know nothing of these realms and who construe the meaning of this verse by their own minds say: Allah gave some abundant provision, and to some provision, to some little provision. In that case, wouldn't people say, "If You had given me abundant provision, how nicely I too would have worshipped You"? According to the realm each person saw, according to the feeling and desire arising in him, our Lord wrote people's destinies by giving them characters. According to their wishes and desires — what they want, what they want to do — their feelings too He knows. According to those feelings their characters; according to those characters, their wishes and desires; according to those wishes and desires the program was made.

When the time comes, they deserve forms and, carrying them out with actual deeds, earn reward or sin. Allah Almighty (?) understood these places? Yes. If you don't see this, how will you open these, how will you know? Then why are you writing? You are ascribing attributes to Allah.

Yes. He might say this: "Hodja, you don't know Arabic, shall we not write at all? I will write; if I have mistakes, you correct them." Then I would say to him: "Gladly, let's sit together, you with your Arabic, me with the inner knowledge, come, let's write a translation without ascribing attributes to Allah," I'd say. I'd say it, but you don't call me, you don't do anything. Even though you hear what I say, there is still stubbornness. God willing, soon, by Allah's mercy, a fine translation — God willing, we are waiting for the opportunity to write it. We still hope from them, to get the seal and print the book — we are waiting.

They've probably seen that we're right, and they themselves will probably give the seal, God willing. I'm not blaming only the Diyanet. A book the Diyanet wrote, there's Ahmet's book, there's Mehmet's book, Hasan's book; 39 people wrote books. Everyone construed it by their own minds. I too wrote a book; they put mine among the books too, then because it contradicted the other books, they removed it. Yes. But God willing, after we get the seal, again it will come there, God willing. If a person had been forced, contrary to his own wish and desire, into a life outside his wish, human life would turn into a nightmare. But by his own wish and desire, by his own free thought, a person enjoys his life.

Whatever a person asked of our Lord, our Lord gives people their own wishes and desires, so that while carrying on their lives in the world they also prove what kind of person they are. In that case, no one can open verses by having our Lord discriminate among His servants, by impairing our Lord's justice. Yes.

We have come to Surah Al-Nahl, verse 93 — there are many errors in Surah Al-Nahl anyway. "Had Allah willed, He would have made you all one nation."

This part is right. (?) Look, pay attention to what it says. Pay close attention. "Had Allah willed, He would have made you all one nation." He would have.

Now this is Allah's willing. But not His willing over me, mind you. Showing us His creative power here, creating. "Had I willed, I would have made you all," He says. He does. Since He says, "In Paradise I will remove the rancour from your hearts," He will do a new loading. We'll be brothers there. He says, "You will be brothers there." Look, He's loading.

Once you learn about willing — ah, Allah willed this. You can't say no to this. This is Allah's willing. The strength and power of His creative might. "Had Allah willed, He would have made you all one nation. But He leads astray whom He wills." Now here it went astray. He has no ruling over people.

He made a covenant with people; according to the covenant He wrote their destinies, programmed everyone; Allah Almighty no longer leads anyone astray, nor does He guide anyone. A person will stray by his own will, find the truth by his own will. On the Day of Judgement, at the Great Court, when we settle accounts, we will be held to account by our own actual deeds. Just like here: if this world is a likeness, a shadow of the hereafter, if I am free here, and for the actual deeds I did freely this state's laws will hold me accountable, then if I defrauded someone, it will punish me. Right? If I killed someone, it will punish me.

If I did something for the state's benefit, it will reward me. Well, Allah too is the judge of judges; in the hereafter, with what each did in the world, He will hold them accountable. Where did Allah lead a person astray? How can he say these words? How he slanders Allah! How he tries to prove Allah, sir, as discriminating among people! Yes.

Yes.

"And He guides whom He wills." "He leads astray whom He wills, and He guides whom He wills." Then why does He send prophets? One: why did He make a covenant with us? Two: why did He send us into the world? Three — ah, He already tells us there. He says it in Surah Ta-Ha, 134, verse. "Why, if We had destroyed them before the Quran?" I mean, before sending you to the world, We know what you are. "Had We said, you to Paradise, you to Hell, you'd have said this," He says: "If only You had sent us prophets and books, so that we would not have fallen into (?)." I mean, "I am free of deficient attributes.

In the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, when I said I am your Lord, I too, to you — because I gave you a part of My spirit and created you resembling My essence," He says, "you did not know Me and denied Me. Even though I gave you time, there you still — since there is no other god who created you, and no other god besides Me told you 'I created you' — still you waited for the Lord in your imagination and grew proud against Me, grew haughty and arrogant, (?), whatever you asked of Me, if I wrote that for you within your own will, is the fault Mine? Look, there are those who knew Me. There are those who denied.

You denied. Well, I didn't discriminate in this; it was right beside you." The three groups are there too.

Now here, how do you accuse Allah of discrimination? "Allah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills." Whereas when I said "I am your Lord", the people there divided into three groups. Those of the right, those of the left. The class of the Muqarrabun. In that case, when Allah Almighty made a covenant with people one by one, the person's wish and desire He writes for him as destiny. Here will is twofold: universal will and particular will. Each person, using his own will, what kind of wish and desire he has has Allah Almighty write down. When he comes to the world, Allah Almighty creates (?) according to that wish and desire, and he himself, by his actual deeds, his good or bad acts, earns reward or sin.

When he goes to the Day of Judgement, at the Great Court Allah Almighty will lay out his deeds one by one before him and say, "This is what you were." In return for what he did, head bowed, face down, to the place that is the recompense of his punishment he will surely go. Yes. Whereas, "Had Allah willed, He would have made you all one nation." Right. "But whoever wills strays from Him." "Whoever wills strays from Him." Now here at the very beginning, "Had Allah willed, He would have made you all one nation," it says. "At first you were all one nation," He says. At first — at first you were all one nation, He says; then you fell into division. This goes to a still deeper meaning. First, you were one nation, I gave you of My spirit, then you fell into division; when I said "your Lord", you denied Me, you waited for the Lord in your minds; though you knew you were created, you split from one nation. No, it's very deep here, there's a still deeper meaning in this. May Allah protect. Yes.

The wrongly rendered part in this verse is this: "But He leads astray whom He wills. And He guides whom He wills. He leads to the right path," it says. The correct one: "But whoever wills strays from Him, and whoever wills enters the right path." The wrongly rendered part in this verse is this: "He brought forth from the children of Adam, from their loins, their descendants. He made them witnesses over themselves and said: Am I not your Lord?" Now we are opening the wrong one here. In the verse. The correct one: "He made the descendants who would emerge from the children of Adam witnesses over themselves and said: I am your Lord." In every Quran it reads "Am I not".

Ahmet rendered it so, Mehmet rendered it so, the Diyanet rendered it so. Now when He says "Am I not your Lord", Allah Almighty — you will see Him creating me like this, from atom to whole, until He creates me. Then He'll say, "Did I not create you?" And when I deny it, I will have denied it knowingly. There's no such thing. There's a sudden separation. All people. With a sudden separation, Allah Almighty's saying "I am your Lord" is there. Besides, they render the verse wrongly. Let's say, fine, you saw it and did so. Why, when the verse says it like this, they've rendered the verse wrongly. Now if we open this part of the verse one by one, it says ve iz ehaze.

Ehaze: making a covenant. We made a covenant. Ve iz ehaze. Min zuhurihim. To Adam (?). It will emerge in Adam. Rabbüke min beni Ademe. "Your Lord made a covenant with Adam," it says.

Ve iz ehaze — He made a covenant. Allah, with Adam — Rabbüke Ademe — from Adam made a covenant. Look, this is very important. When it says min zuhurihim, from Adam's descendants they will emerge. Ve eşhedehüm, ve eşhedehüm, it says. He took them as witnesses. Enfüsihim — against their own selves. Elestü bi Rabbiküm. He said, "I am your Lord." To whom did He say it? To the community, the people who would emerge from him. (?) emerge, He said. And when it says zuhurihim, they take it as bringing out from his loins. Right. When it said to those who would come from his loins, they made it "brought out from his loins".

From his loins. They had them make a covenant. So where they rendered it, what does it say? "He brought forth their descendants from their loins. He made them witnesses over themselves." Well, what does Allah Almighty say? There, no one was created from anyone. No one gave birth to anyone, nor was born. We were all created directly by Allah. Giving birth and being born are in the world, in the worldly realm. Then what does it say? This is in the worldly realm. It says zuhurihim, after all. He brought out his descendants. It says they make a covenant. Does it say in the world? To make his word accepted, he exposes his ignorance.

In the world? Well, will you be able to see Allah in the world? "See Me" — perceive, perceive — "you cannot see." La gaybillahillah. He has sent you to an unseen realm. He sent you to a realm where His essence is not seen. This time does it say in the mother's womb? Or the child in the womb — while in the world, if this realm is a likeness and shadow of the hereafter, if this child, before reaching the age of reason, has no sin written for it by Allah, how did you make the child in the womb make a covenant?

He says it himself. It's written so in every book too. "Or in the hereafter — it's not clear," he says. Then why do you write the (?) verse? Oh.

So, the root of all the wrongly rendered verses — because this verse was not understood, verses, in line with people's own minds, amid various superstitions, were rendered wrongly and ascribed attributes to our Lord.

By explaining this verse to you, in the Quran here the errors rendered as superstition and written ascribing attributes to our Lord we will try to remove. We will open this verse somewhat deeply.

This verse, Surah Al-A'raf, 172, we have taken again here. We've taken the 5 pages here again as they are. Now why have we taken this here? There's benefit in repeating something. A person reads something, understands it by his own mind. Reading a second time, he understands what he reads somewhat more deeply. The third time he says, "Oh, I hadn't read this part." (?) the mind develops. So when we sometimes write the footnotes as repetitions too, to ease people's understanding we put these texts here. We opened willing earlier in verses too. But since willing appears very often in the Quran, it has been repeated constantly.

We too opened willing in Surah Al-A'raf, verse 72, in detail. Wherever our Lord's willing on account of people appears, Surah Al-A'raf, 172, the verse which we opened in broad detail — its meaning we put, and repeat it. The repetition of a text, the wisdom in repeating it, is so that the subject is better understood.

So, the root of all the wrongly rendered verses — because this verse was not understood, verses, in line with people's own minds, amid various superstitions, were rendered wrongly and ascribed attributes to our Lord. By explaining this verse to you, the errors in the Quran rendered as superstition and written ascribing attributes to our Lord we will try to remove. "We'll open this verse somewhat deeply," I've said. Now there's a message here, I think.

Sir, he says that one of our guests says that Gül — our Ömer Sefa has replied to the guest here: "After our lesson ends, Surah Al-A'raf 200 and 201, check the videos of the verses. I'll upload them again, God willing," he says. "Sir, Hodja," he says, "blessed talks. At weddings held nowadays there is (?) mixed dancing of women and men. There's dancing. Relatives' weddings are also like this, with the bridal gown. How should we behave in this situation? Surah Al-A'raf 200 and 200, the commentary won't open either. Is there a technical problem, I wonder? I kiss your hands," he says. Ömer Sefa answers this here.

"I'll upload them again," he says. Now briefly, since that's so, let's say this to (?).

Let's say this to our guest Gül. Briefly, because we have a lesson. We'll wrap it up in one, two, a few sentences. Allah Almighty has told people what is mahram. (?) Mother, father, son, daughter, sibling, paternal aunt, maternal aunt, maternal uncle, paternal uncle, and the woman's husband's sons from other women, the husband's sons from other women. Now, outside of these, (?) in Islam there is haremlik and selamlik. But people have opened this up, saying there's no mahram in it. This came that way, that came this way. In the end, women and men set about dancing together. After that they opened up and became stark naked.

That's how Satan strips people little by little. We have no such custom. If you're going to hold a wedding, a wedding has a virtue. Holding a wedding is a festivity. The meaning of festivity: people — so-and-so and so-and-so are marrying. They are not committing zina. They have been declared husband and wife in Allah's sight. They are now each other's mahram. Each other's harem. It's announcing this to people. That is also the meaning of nikah. Yes. But we uncover ourselves, we let everything loose. We expose all of the woman's private parts. We put her in a wedding gown. Whatever it is, "It's a very beautiful wedding gown," they say about her gown.

Whereas every part of the woman is on display.

What kind of thing is this?

Our religion is not like this. If you're going to have an Islamic wedding, you hold a mawlid. Look, what did women do in the Ottoman times? They held henna nights. They danced among themselves. Among themselves. Not with men. Women among themselves. And the men enjoy themselves among themselves. Meals, feasts. Then the man... the woman waits for her husband. The man goes to the room too. He prays two rak'ahs. After fulfilling Allah's command, sir, they become married to each other. Now I don't regard weddings of this kind as weddings. These are weddings done with the vain desire of the nafs. And Allah Almighty strikes them anyway.

Pay attention. What kind of blow is this? Now the young man borrows money, gets married. He'll hold a wedding. He rents a hall. The wedding — those halls, rooms — he rents. This one has overstepped his limit. He has stuck his foot out of the (?). There's a tear in the trousers. (?) at the private part. He's gone out tearing that hole even wider. He's unaware of it. Because (?). Then these are a show for people. Wedding gown. Frills. Then when it comes to paying the money, the squeeze begins. Hardship begins. A few months — though they go on loving each other, after a few months unrest begins. Discord begins. Fights, quarrels begin.

Then separations appear. If only you hadn't been carried away by the nafs' vain desire, hadn't done those needless things, nor endured this hardship, had built a nice family home, with your children lived happily, been content with dry bread and a dry onion, been content with the blessing Allah gave — would this unrest have befallen you?

People have no gratitude. When there is no gratitude, Allah Almighty's verse (?). "Do We ever diminish the wealth of one who gives thanks?" Allah says so. Look, a person gives. As he gives, Allah gives to him too. He gives, you see. "Do We diminish the wealth of one who gives thanks?" He says. Allah lied in His verse, he says. God forbid, Allah protect us. These have no gratitude. Gratitude. They don't hear.

Then discord. And what does Allah do? To them. These did not give thanks. I mean, they still were not content; they grew proud, boasted, so that people say so-and-so did this, did that, sir, put her in a wedding gown, sir, treated his wife like this — and then let them take the slap.

Accordingly one man says this: "Know yourself, yourself; if you do not know yourself, (?)."

Yes.

Isn't that so, (?)? Yes.

It's time for the evening prayer here. Yes. There are 10 minutes. We probably can't finish this in 10 minutes.

Come, let's save this for the next lesson. We've opened it already anyway. Since we opened it, the first time we opened it, Surah Al-A'raf, 172, if you read that verse, you'll have read this part too. Yes. We have guests here too. Let's say that's all for tonight. Lillahi Teâlâ. Al-Fatiha.

Amin Ya Rabbil Alemin.