Ali 'Imran 69: A group from the people of the Book tried to misguide you by any means. However, they can only misguide themselves, but they do not realize.

We left off at verse 69 of Surah Al-i Imran. A party of the People of the Book wished that they could somehow lead you astray. Yet they only led themselves astray, and they do not even realize it, He says. Why do they not even realize it? Because they are in a state of heedlessness. Heedlessness. (?) heedlessness has drawn a veil over their eyes, they think that what they do, they do very well. Whereas what they do, in a swamp, is nothing but deceiving themselves, nothing else, and they do not realize it. Why does this situation come about like this? Allah Almighty gave man the blessing of reason.

The share of this reason in man is twelve percent. Some say eighteen, twenty-four; don't mind that. There is no exact number anyway, but twelve percent, which Allah Almighty gave to man, twelve percent is a normal state. Because man is talented. He makes some things. If it rose to eighteen or twenty-four percent, that would mean he is heading towards the art of creating. It is twelve percent. With twelve percent of his reason, can a person with that partial reason be equal to his Lord, who is the universal reason, entirely without deficiency and without error? Then this partial reason will make mistakes, fall short, and Allah Almighty will guide it with His verses and bring it out into the light.

Whoever turns his back on Allah's verses, because he judges by his own reason, remains in such swamps and darkness.

Verse 17 of Surah Al-Baqarah tells us this very well too. Look what it says now. What does it say? Let us prove that it is so. With verse 17 of Surah Al-Baqarah. Yes. They, it says, the state of the hypocrites is the example of one who lights a fire on a dark night; that is, a fire burning on a dark night is their hearing the word of Allah Almighty, it lighting their way, that fire lights up people, it lights, its lighting: the moment the fire burns and lights up its surroundings, Allah at once goes to their light, it says, which is a wrong verse, I mean, the verse is not wrong, it is a wrongly interpreted verse: they at once turn their backs on that fire and leave themselves in darkness.

This is one of the 350 wrongly interpreted verses. Yes.

So when they turn their backs on the fire, that is, on Allah's light, the moment they turn their backs on the verses we call that light, they leave themselves in darkness. And a person in the dark, in order to find his way, cannot help bumping left and right. It is impossible. And it is also impossible for him to escape that distress and sorrow. So the verses, always confirming one another without contradicting, what do they say? Their hearts are scattered and restless. By saying they are lying unbelievers, these people, with the deficiencies of their reason, thinking the practices they invented themselves are right, only lead themselves astray and confuse themselves.

In this case, Allah Almighty says so anyway. Yet they only lead themselves astray, and they do not even realize it. Because they act thinking what they do is right. Because reason is partial; We created you deficient, says Allah Almighty. Deficient, not in the creation of the body. Deficient: the deficient creation of reason. Why does He create reason deficient? If He had created it complete, He would have created a being (?) to His Essence. So man's reason will be deficient, he will make mistakes, mistakes. Why? He will commit mistakes; this is what Allah wills. Because, since He gave him of His spirit, close to His Essence, if this man had been without error, he would have been a being equal to Allah, and perhaps he would even have become a god, Allah forbid.

So what does the verse say? If you had not committed mistakes on earth, We would have destroyed you and created in your place servants who commit mistakes, it says. Then why does He do this? Allah Almighty created man so that His Essence would be seen as in a mirror, but He created his reason deficient so that man would be in need of His Essence. With this deficient reason man will make mistakes; because he knows his Lord as Lord, as Lord, the Creator, and because he knows His majesty and power, that He has power over everything, he will submit to Him. What happens if he does not submit? What happens to people who act against the laws of a state?

Prison. What happens to those who violate them more? Life imprisonment. What happens to those who violate them even more? The gallows. Yes, and the execution of these people is their staying forever in Hell. Forever in Hell. So, this means the things they take to be right with their own reason are in fact their own deeds that lead them astray, confuse them and make them swim in disasters, their own actual practices. What are we talking about? A party of the People of the Book wished that they could somehow lead you astray. Now let us come to the beginning here. Why do they try to behave this way?

Because they have deified their nafs, out of their own existence and majesty, because they belittle Allah Almighty, belittle, they waited for the Lord in their own imagination. This belittling, where is it, this belittling? Ask any unbeliever you like, he will say: I do not belittle Allah. This belittling, where is this belittling? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Ve iz ehaze rabbüke min benî Âdeme min zuhûrihim zürriyyetehüm ve eşhedehüm alâ enfüsihim e lestü bi rabbiküm: the belittling in this address. There, in Surah Al-Waqi'ah: Ve küntüm ezvâcen selâseh. All pairs coming from one another, three classes.

Fe ashâbü'l-meymeneti mâ ashâbü'l-meymeneh. Those of the right, it says. Ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü'l-meş. But those of the left. What a pity for those of the left. Ve's-sâbikûne's-sâbikûn, ülâike'l-mukarrabûn, fî cennâti'n-naîm. The third group He speaks of. The group of the foremost. The group of the saints, the friends of Allah, the prophets, the martyrs, the witnesses. Three classes, three groups facing Him, and Allah Almighty gave the likeness of man, of His spirit. Of His spirit. Yes, so that they would carry those natures. When He said 'your Lord', they waited for the Lord in their own imagination; they had been resentful toward Allah.

Out of their own pride and arrogance they did not recognize Allah Almighty. They were expecting a Lord who was more majestic, more severe, who would frighten them or who would send punishments upon them. Allah Almighty explains their state very well with His verses. In which verse? What does it say? Had We willed, it says, from the sky, that is, from the clouds, We would have lowered angels to you and made you prostrate, it says. Lowered angels and made you prostrate. So, from the value He gave man, from His spirit that He gave man, and from His leaving him free in his own will, from His willing his desire and wish for him and writing it for him as destiny: Allah Almighty, without using force on anyone, wrote their desires and wishes, their wills, for them as destiny, and leaving them alone with their wishes, when He wanted His Lordship to be known by their own (?), He used no force on them.

In this case man says: my Lord, You created me here. Because I saw You as being for me, like me, I could not recognize You. So that they would not say, even if You sent me to an unseen world, how were You worshipped there. Because Allah Almighty is free from deficient attributes, He created this unseen world. He created these worlds and sent man to the unseen, an unseen world. So in a world where you do not see your Lord, Allah Almighty, with all kinds of examples, a mosquito or something bigger, Allah Almighty who never abandons comparison, addresses people in every way. In this case, man goes along according to whatever covenant he gave Allah Almighty.

There, by denying Allah, in such a way as to wait for the Lord of his own imagination, he had the result of the covenant he gave, that script, written there, equipped himself with characters, and in the world, man plays the script that he had written as (?). So this man, because he is an enemy of Allah, out of the arrogance and pride of his own nafs and because he despises Allah Almighty, is there a verse for what you say? There is. There is. What does it say? Have you not seen the one who has deified his nafs? So people who, in their own majesty and existence, feel a being in themselves, who in an ego despise everyone but themselves, because they are, towards Allah Almighty, in arrogance and grandeur, in a state of taking revenge on them, they fight with all their strength to lead those who say Allah away from their path.

They clash. With all their strength. So it is Allah Almighty who says: a party of the People of the Book wished that they could somehow lead you astray. Plus, plus. Some of these say, (?), we are the close ones of Allah; and some say, the punishment of Hell will not touch us for more than three days. In this case people only deceive themselves and, with egoistic feelings towards people, with their own egoistic feelings, how much pride and arrogance they are in, they prove to us with these verses. Our Lord informs us of their state. So: that they could somehow lead you astray. Yet they only lead themselves astray, and they do not even realize it, He says.

Let us read in our tafsir too, let us see what we say; we explained it somewhat broadly; if there are places we explained in the tafsir, I will explain them to you too, inshallah. Once people let the love of kufr settle in their hearts. Where will the love of kufr settle? Otherwise, man will temporarily on earth commit kufr too, commit sins too. What does Allah Almighty say? If you had been seized at once for the sins you committed, you would not find a single living being left on earth, He says. So kufr temporarily settling in a person's heart, or living kufr in the midst of kufr, then, because kufr did not settle in his heart, stripping free of that kufr with the light of faith, turning his back on kufr and turning to Allah Almighty.

But once man lets kufr settle in his heart in that Elest-i Rabbiküm address, after that it is impossible for him to turn to Allah and (?) those who say Allah. This is impossible. So in this respect there is one more verse. What does Allah Almighty say? If we beautify verses with verses, we understand better.

The (?) and good-doing people who love Allah never, it says, take unbelievers as friends. How beautifully it says it. They do not take them as friends. Yes, in a verse it says it in more detail like this. Do not take your enemies and the enemies of Allah as friends, it says. Do not take them as friends. Again in another verse: whoever takes them as friends is like them, it says. Why does it say so? Because a person who loves the course of the non-Muslim, follows him, considers what he does permissible, has the same character, so he too is like him, it says. He is like him. Saying 'like': you know, secretly he is so, but later, if he can turn back, he turns back.

If he can turn back. In this respect, (?) kufr is one thing, 'like' is another. Yes.

That he could walk on their path. That is, that the one who has settled kufr in his heart could walk on the path of the Muslims. This is impossible. Not until they remove the love of kufr from their hearts. Yes. People take deviant paths as friends. Deviant paths. Today we see that people have adopted many deviant paths as their character. What are these deviant paths? Paths Allah Almighty does not want, paths that push His limits. Paths of fornication, paths of unlawful earning, paths of interest, paths of usury. Today people have adopted these. And they have come to such a state that people helping people has disappeared; a man, to sell his goods and get those five pennies into his pocket, uses every kind of trickery, and qualities it does not have, that is, qualities the goods he will sell do not have, he (?) to the person in the nicest way and sells.

Once he puts the money in his pocket, he has fooled him, he has made money. He has made money. And he cannot know that, the blessed man, he deceived himself. One, by lying in the sight of Allah. Two, by deceiving the person in front of him and killing his right. Three, by that person never coming to him again, by his being left alone.

Yes. So a Muslim does not deceive a Muslim; he is his brother. In the laws Allah Almighty has set, in the rulings of the Sharia, for that sale a certain charge, starting from fifteen percent, up to sixty, even up to seventy percent, he can set as profit margin. Because there are goods that waste. There are goods that waste by half. He sets his profit accordingly. Allah Almighty permits this. If he earns lawfully, lawfully that person earns. He earns both in the sight of Allah and his customers love him. He earns. Whoever loves Allah, says Allah Almighty, whoever loves Allah, to My servants, He says, I make him loved.

I make him loved by My servants. Yes. Not until they remove the love of kufr from their hearts. People take deviant paths as friends. So these people, next to those who say Allah, without realizing it, feel themselves shrink. Shrink. Because there is reason. That those facing them are on a right path, speak truly, that their character is upright, that they do not lie, that they keep their word: facing this, when they see their own deficiencies, they fall into an inferiority complex. They get into a complex. This is the dignified side of the Muslim. What is called dignity.

They feel themselves shrink. Just as people with bad habits, those addicted to these afflictions like alcohol, hashish or heroin, feeling guilty next to other people, want to get people used to such afflictions so that people like themselves multiply, so those who rebel against Allah, who turn away from Him, who give room in their hearts to the love of kufr, who persist in kufr with the stubbornness of their nafs, also, with the feeling of guilt they see in themselves next to such pure and innocent Muslims, do not refrain from resorting to every means to turn these Muslims away from the religion they believe in.

And we see these today. We see them. Yes.

Yet they only lead themselves astray, and they do not even realize it.

Yes. It's closing, let's close it. Yes, I think it seems finished to me, (?). No.

Today there is a problem with the question board. We cannot open our question board. We cannot open our question board. Let it be for now. Inshallah it will open. Yet they only lead themselves astray, and they do not even realize it. Whereas the points where such people of kufr are mistaken come from their failing to grasp the state of the people of faith and failing to comprehend them. The people of faith are not like the people of kufr, and there are chasms between them. The very first point of this chasm: first, that the Muslim knows Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and second, that in his own helplessness, against our Lord, the owner of these worlds, who has power over everything and holds everything under His rule, against whom in no way can anyone prevail, against whom even if mankind and jinn gathered they could not prevail, (that the unbeliever) stands against our Lord.

This, in great heedlessness, in great ignorance: the chasms between the Muslim and kufr, the people of kufr. Yes. Their efforts, next to the people of faith, are a waste of time and their own destruction. Why? Their efforts next to the people of faith are a waste of time. Allah Almighty says in a verse: the temptation Satan gives you is ignorant. Ignorant. Satan, who is learned. An unbeliever's, an unbeliever's, I address him as unbeliever. Because Allah also addresses him as unbeliever; that is why, these are Allah's verses. (?), a non-Muslim, however much knowledge he may have about religion, a non-Muslim, but he cannot have as much knowledge as Satan.

He cannot have as much knowledge as Satan. Now let us open this up a bit. Because I am comparing with the non-Muslim. I am not comparing with the Muslim. Why? What does the verse say? The temptation Satan gives you is ignorant. To My servant who knows Me, it says there, look, to My servant who knows Me it is ignorant. So may Allah protect the servant who does not know. The non-Muslim, because he has turned his back on Allah, is unaware of the light Allah holds before him, unaware; he wanders in errors with his partial reason. The accursed one, however, knows the truth. That Allah created the worlds, that no one can prevail against Him, and that he himself rose to be the teacher of the angels, but that out of the pride and arrogance in his nafs he did not prostrate to Adam and was cursed; in this situation, asking Allah Almighty for permission, asking for permission: give me a life until the Day of Judgment, his saying so, his saying: I will sit in front of Your servants, set traps and divert those servants of Yours who come to You from their paths, and Allah Almighty's saying: if they follow you, here, I have given them to you; today a person of kufr's knowledge is (?) Satan's knowledge.

In this situation Satan makes them (?) very nicely. In fact he does not even go near them. Satan deals with the one who knows Allah. In this case, against the temptation Satan has given to the one who knows Allah, he knows at once, by the verses of our Lord in response, that they are satanic temptations. In a verse, in a verse Allah Almighty says this.

We, they have misinterpreted that one too, (?), I am correcting it. They have misinterpreted the verse. Into the hearts of the prophets, firmly, Our verses We place. The temptation Satan gives never touches him, it says. Because it is firmly settled on its foundations. So the verses confirm one another, you see; it says, to My servant who knows Me it is ignorant, and they say this like this: Sir, Allah repels Satan from him. From whom? He repels him from His prophet, and Satan cannot tempt him. If He repels Satan from him, but he is created as a signal anyway. That is, min mâricin min nâr: We created him from a pure fire, He says.

His being created from a pure fire. If He had said then, We created them within frequencies, no one would have understood. What do they say? They travel around the world in (?). Well, today in (?) from America, from every part of the world, from here we watch. We watch. Created within frequencies. Just as a radio you have tuned to medium wave, long wave or whatever frequency, if the channel is not on, you say it is off. So these too, because they are created within frequencies, when you come to that frequency, if you cannot get any communication from there, it means that jinn has died. So they are created within frequencies.

In that case there is no place he does not pass through, so he will pass through that too. So one must pay great attention to the verses of Allah Almighty and must not attribute attributes to Allah. What would He do? Allah would keep Satan away from His prophet. It is not so. He will still do his duty. But Allah places the verses firmly in His prophet's heart, it says; the temptation Satan gives remains ignorant to him. The verses (?). Yes. As you said just now, if people do not know the verses, with half their reason they are like a bird flying with one wing. Yes.

So the efforts of such people to turn the people of faith from the path are their own waste of time. The truth has come and falsehood has vanished, it says.

Such people, concerning Muslims, have many sides they do not know and are mistaken about. As a result of Allah Almighty creating people and making a covenant with them while in the world of spirits, He wrote each person's will for him as his destiny. It is impossible for this written destiny to be changed. Impossible. No one can change his destiny. Why can he not change it? Look. If We do not will, you cannot will, says Allah Almighty. If We do not will, you cannot will. What is Allah Almighty's willing? His doing what He wants. Then why does He not will? With Us there is a book, He says, which is preserved in the Preserved Tablet.

Nothing is added to it or taken from it afterwards, He says. So if all beings who will come until the Day of Judgment have been loaded in the Holy Quran within a program, within a program, and since there will never again be any deficiency or excess in it, if Allah Almighty, making a covenant with everyone one by one in the Elest-i Rabbiküm address, wrote their desires and wishes, their wills, for them as destiny, and engraved these destinies into that person as characters, then no one but Allah can ever change this again. And our Lord says: We will not change this again. This is finished. It is programmed.

So it is impossible for this written destiny to be changed. It is also impossible for a person to change his own destiny. It is not in his own hands. Those who cannot grasp this point, to change people's destinies according to their own reason and to distance them from their religion, use methods of their own. With these methods they use and apply, they only lead those who resemble them and whose covenants are like one another's, and while busying themselves with such efforts they drag themselves to destruction without realizing it. So with these states they only lead themselves astray. Yes.

In the service of the covenants they gave, he holds himself as witness to his surroundings, to himself and to Allah, and finally, at the end of his life, he leaves his world and goes, in the presence of the Lord of the worlds, to give account of what he did. So these are the ones who cannot use their reason, who wrong their own selves.

Those who cannot use their reason, who wrong their own selves.