An-Nisa 38: And those who spend from their possessions to show off to people, while they do not believe in Allah or the Hereafter (will be punished). When Shaytan is the companion of a person, how bad a companion that one is.

Surah An-Nisa, verse 38: those who, while not believing in Allah and the Last Day, spend their wealth to show off to people will also suffer punishment in the hereafter. If the devil becomes someone's companion, what an evil companion he is.

Those people do not believe in Allah and the Last Day. I mean, non-Muslims. But they spend their wealth for show. I mean, in pride and arrogance, so that people see you as great, so that they flatter you, sir, so that they stroke your ego. I mean: I am helping these. Look, I'm their master, or their elder — those who, carried away by such desires, with pride and arrogance, help people. Those who think Allah's wealth is their own and think it is they who give. Shirk, that is — these are hidden shirk.

They want to gain name and fame among people. They wish to be spoken of with praise. As I said earlier, you know, they see themselves as something, and in this self-importance, with these feelings, these people set out to help.

In return for the wealth they give in charity, they expect the reward not from Allah but from people praising them. Such people are in grandeur, pride and egotism. They are on exactly the path the devil took. These will suffer punishment in the hereafter. I mean, he does not expect the return for the wealth from Allah. He does not expect the reward for what he did from Allah. He expects people to praise him, to exalt him. In this case he becomes exactly a companion to the devil. The devil too acted out of ego, didn't he? He rebelled against Allah Almighty. So, with such pride and arrogance — let them say — those who help people for praise, and if they are also non-Muslim, they have received their return in the world.

To the hereafter, sir, without any gain, like a bankrupt merchant, they return. And in this case they leave their own selves exposed to wrongdoing.

Let the devil just once become a person's companion — there is no evil he won't make him do. People who are in nafs, pride and grandeur fall very quickly for the devil's temptation. Because the devil, out of ego and pride, did not prostrate to Adam, he was driven from the presence and had the accursed ring of damnation put around his neck. So people in the same pride, grandeur and ego have taken the devil's path. The devil's pride and ego kept the devil from prostrating to Adam. For this reason he was scorned and humiliated. Unable to bear this, the devil, setting traps for Allah's servants to draw them onto his own path, makes his own path — pride and grandeur, ego and selfish desire — look attractive to people and drags them to destruction. To take revenge on the generations to come from Adam's loins, he leaves no temptation and whispering untried on them.

The devil. Allah Almighty says so too. What does He say? He is a clear enemy to you, He says. The devil.

When told to prostrate to Adam, he rebelled against Allah. He saw himself as great. He grew proud. In this case he was cursed, did not prostrate, and asked Allah Almighty for permission. When Allah Almighty gave him that permission until the Day of Resurrection, he says: I too will set traps on the path before Your servants, I will keep them from coming to You. And Allah Almighty says: if they follow you, take them, I have given them to you. I mean, if the accursed one is the (?) of hell, then those people worthy of that (?) of hell will enter hell too. He gave to him — I mean to the (?) of hell, those worthy of hell.

So in this case, wealth and property — if a person gives in charity, he will give for Allah. He will expect the return from Allah. If I have helped Ahmet or Mehmet, I'll turn and leave, turn my back and leave, I'll forget, and I won't even know whom I gave what.

Only then will you have helped for Allah. But if you help so-and-so and then, when you suffer some hurt or harshness from him, you say: look at this man! Back then I helped him, and look what he does to me today in return for that help — then you're done.

You will never mention that help of yours. You had forgotten it anyway. What he does is on himself. When you say, about that help, "look, I helped him like this and today he does this to me", a desire comes to your nafs too. For this reason: no desire for the nafs. Whoever becomes an enemy of Allah and His Messenger, and a person takes his place in the ranks of those who are enemies of Allah and His Messenger, he too is resurrected with them. I mean, the hadith of the Prophet: a person is resurrected with the one he loves, resurrected with those he loves. In this case, the devil is an enemy of the Prophet (peace be upon him).

Of all people he is most an enemy to him. Why is he his enemy? Because he knows that people were created from his spirit. And he knows that he came as a mercy to the worlds.

In this case Allah Almighty himself sends the devil to the Prophet (peace be upon him). He says: O Muhammad, you will ask, I will answer. How do I know, he says, that you will answer me truthfully?

Look at the devil's answer; out of his pride and arrogance he says exactly this: If I don't answer you truthfully, Allah will burn me before my enemies and scatter my ashes into the air, he says.

Look at the pride: he doesn't want to see this. The Prophet's first question: whom do you dislike most in the world? It's you, he says, you are the one I dislike most. In this case, the one who is an enemy of Allah and the Messenger, who asked Allah for a lifespan until the Day of Resurrection — Allah Almighty, who gave him this lifespan; when the devil addressed Allah Almighty, "I will set traps before Your servants and keep them from coming to You", and Allah Almighty too said "take them, I have given them to you" — if you turn your back on the one who created you and befriend that enemy of yours, woe to you; you think about that part yourself.

You know, we said a moment ago: what a person does to himself, the two worlds together could not do. Yes.

Those who become companions to such people keep company with very evil companions. Let's read the (?) once more from the start. Whoever becomes an enemy of Allah and His Messenger, and a person takes his place in the ranks of those who are enemies of Allah and His Messenger, he too is resurrected with them. Those who become companions to such people keep company with very evil companions. Those who rebel against Allah, whether of the devils or of humankind, gradually pull a person toward hell, which is such an evil path, and toward the fiery punishment there.

For this reason, as long as people cannot free themselves from pride and grandeur, from the desire of ego, they become a toy in the devil's hands.

Because it's exactly the setting the devil wants. What is the setting the devil wants? A person's (?) from his nafs. He gives him such temptations. He whispers to him in ways that stroke his nafs, such that the person can't save himself from that whispering and temptation. Because that nafs has covered his whole body, has squeezed even his reason into a corner, and that thing called faith has shrunk to the tip of a pin.

Just look at the desire of the nafs. Exactly what the devil wants.

So for this reason, as long as people cannot free themselves from pride and grandeur, from the desire of ego, they become a toy in the devil's hands. When people in this state hand out their wealth, they hand it out to satisfy their selfish desires. I mean, you give so that they say what a good person, what a fine person, how generous, what a great man, and so that they flutter around you. so that you are their master. When you tell them something, they do it at once. (?). Never for Allah, always for his nafs. That is the temptation the devil gives. Yes.

They want to be praised and extolled. Whoever of these speaks most sweetly, whoever extols them, they don't hold back from giving them their wealth. These states of theirs are a wrong against their own selves in the realm of the hereafter. Because glory and fame, pride and grandeur belong to Allah Almighty alone. Now here, from the age of ignorance, the state of the poets when the Prophet was in Mecca the Honoured comes to my mind. The poets — whoever speaks most sweetly? Whoever extolled whomever would get purses full of gold from them. They had a certain place; they'd go up there and recite. Again one day he went up there, and while extolling people he sees Abu Sufyan's wife coming.

He praises her. Out of that praise, that pride, Abu Sufyan's wife opens the mouths of her purses to him. If you say, "Did you see, Hodja?" — history is nothing but repetition. I suppose they're putting into words events that happened. And that's how it should be too. Because they used to do this out of their pride and arrogance. Yes.

O people! The devil calls man to hell, to fire and to oppression. But Allah calls people to paradise and, by His favour, to guidance. According to the verse Aduvvallâhi ve aduvveküm — your enemies and Allah's enemies — in the verse where He says this, the enemies of Allah are the devil, the nafs and the world. If people fall for the devil, the nafs and the world, these keep dragging people toward what is other than Allah.

I'm not opening these points up.

Yes. So Allah warns people with His verses, and makes known to people what they don't know through prophets, with books, and finally through scholars.

Who abandons Allah's friends?

What are Allah's friends? Who? Reason, faith, and the angel of inspiration.

What are the things that would make people enemies of Allah? Who? The devil. The nafs and the world. These three work as one.

The others too, the three work as one: faith, reason and inspiration. Whichever side a person turns to, he takes his place in that side's ranks.

Some say Allah's — Allah's enemy, I mean, Allah is an enemy, they say. I mean, according to the verse Aduvvallâhi ve aduvveküm, your enemies and Allah's enemies. Not Allah's, but those Allah is an enemy to, they say. Allah's enemies and the enemies of Allah — they say it like this. I mean, the unbelievers whom Allah is an enemy to. Yet Allah is no one's enemy. If He were an enemy, He would take on an attribute. He would be in helplessness. God forbid. He has neither any heedlessness nor any helplessness. He is the Creator. So that everyone proves himself, people to this world, to the realm of Mulk, He sent them.

In this case Allah is no one's enemy. If it were so, He would not say in the verse: Today, with no injustice done to anyone, everyone will be given in full what he earned, as the return of his own two hands — He would not say that. There He would set apart His enemies. Allah is no one's enemy. So who are the enemies of Allah? The devil. The nafs. That's how it was created. And the world's attractive appearance.

Who abandons Allah's friends? Whoever takes the one hostile to him as his place, as his companion — let him know that such people have no share in the hereafter. What does it say? Allah Almighty says in the verse: there they are without anyone and alone, it says. Without anyone, because Allah has lifted His mercy from them. For no one from whom Allah has lifted His mercy does any person of faith intercede.

And alone, because he is left face to face with his sins. They have no faith to save them. They have no (?) to save them. The place they will reach is hell. What an evil bed that is. What an evil bed. I mean, a place to lie, a place of refuge. We ask Allah Almighty for guidance for all people, for people. As people who come from the same root, we have prayed to our Lord who created us that they too may see the truth.