Ali 'Imran 98: Say; “Oh People of the Book. While Allah sees all that you do, why do you deny Allah’s verses?”

We are reading verse 98 of Surah Al-Imran, yes.

Say: O People of the Book, while Allah sees what you do, why do you deny Allah's verses? Now, as I said a moment ago: that Allah Almighty is aware of everything, that He sees everything, that He even knows what even the particles to come until the Day of Judgement will do; if we know this, we are afraid of going against Allah's commands. Now let us think about it like this: you work at some place, your foreman or your boss, or you are a civil servant and they send you somewhere. What do they say? Go to such-and-such a place, take this message. And you, second by second, that you are under cameras, under those images, and that every moment, every second, they follow what you do on those cameras: if you grasp this, then to win their favour, to win the favour of those superiors, with heart and soul you carry out the order he gave without ever missing the mark, you deliver it.

But if you live unaware of it, if you live unaware of that camera, you play around here and there, hop and jump, and like the grasshopper pass your time; and when you say 'alas!', when the time comes from which there is no return, at a time when regret is of no use, you will have done to your self what you were going to do. So if a person always knows Allah like this, that he is always under His view, if he knows this, that person is as he appears, appears as he is.

So these, those who deny them or cannot grasp them, Allah's verses they try to twist. They try to deny them.

Allah Almighty is present in every particle of the universe.

Watching over and protecting His creatures is not hard for Allah. Denying Allah's verses while knowing this makes it evident that people do not fear Allah or do not know Allah Almighty; it brings this to light. As I said a moment ago, that person unaware that he is being watched under the camera, that is, the person who forgets Allah, who lives unaware of Him.

No created being can refuse to recognise Allah. Why not? Except for humans and jinn, all His creatures, Allah Almighty has programmed; Allah Almighty has programmed His creatures, and they do these things according to the duty they are to perform. Because He left humans and jinn to their own will, He set them free. He willed that His Essence be known through their own will. And to man He has ascribed a mind that can grasp His Essence. Able to grasp His Essence. That is, not all of it, not the whole. Here, when I say able to grasp His Essence, I mean: I was created by a Lord. He granted a mind able to grasp this.

So every person knows that by a god, by a Lord, he was created. Yes, because religion is rational and transmitted. A person's religion is according to the measure of each one's mind. To every person of reason Allah Almighty has sent His verses in a way that lets him grasp His Essence. By openly proving the existence of His Essence, how He has made Himself known to the person. After this, a person's denying Allah is a rebellion against Allah out of his own self.

A person, while talking with his friend, on some matters wants his friend to do something for him. And if the friend does not do what he was told, the person gets annoyed with him. And starts to go against him. He, too, starts not doing what his friend who did not do his job says, and because he is angry at his friend, he starts speaking against him. These people, just like this, have held Allah equal to themselves; when their requests in line with their own wishes and desires do not come about, they speak against Allah, change His verses or deny them, and with words against Allah they begin to try to take revenge: such people.

Who are they? It says it anyway: the People of the Book. Yes, if he feared Allah, would he do that? How nicely we give an example here, like two friends. Anyway, if he feared Allah, would he say: the punishment in Hell will not touch us for more than three days? Well, if he feared Allah, would he say: we are Allah's close ones? Look how nice: perhaps even beyond a friend here. When I say (?) friend, it is even beyond a friend. So, wretched people. These ones. And Allah Almighty says: is there any proof sent down to them from Me? Then let them show their proofs, He says. There is no proof at all. Their own superstitions, their worlds of fantasy.

These people: do they never think that Allah created people deficient and fallible? The reason: we discussed it in the earlier verses; let us mention it briefly here too and move on. Allah created man close to His Essence. For this reason, since man is deficient and fallible in mind, people may think wrongly. Within these wrong thoughts, sitting down to bargain with the Creator, in line with their own wishes and desires, they cannot bargain with Allah. Because Allah is the Creator. There is no bargaining with Allah.

What is there? Only wish and request. From Allah. Yes. Because He, the Creator, is the Possessor of all wisdom. Since He does not will injustice for the worlds, everything He created has been created so that from His Essence it suffers no injustice, does not complain about Allah, and is content with its state and accepts its state. In terms of creation. That is, in terms of bodily creation. No one can say: for the task I will do, You created me like this; had You created me like that, I would have worshipped You even better. Because the created, within the tasks they are to do in the most beautiful way, have been programmed to do that work in the most beautiful way.

There is nothing more beautiful than it. There is no more beautiful way of being created than that. Yes.

If all our wishes had been fulfilled, within those wishes of ours that look good to us, both we ourselves and creatures we do not know and do not recognise would have been harmed. Because our mind is deficient.

He created us with a deficient mind. Since He created us close to His Essence, had He created us with a complete mind, He would have created beings equal to Himself. People would be shirk against Allah. They too would have had the power to create. That is why He created them deficient, so that He would continue His sovereignty, that He is the Owner of the worlds, His kingship, that He is the King of kings, and He would govern all these creatures of His, seeing and watching over them, and as the great one, as the Great, He would stand at their head. There can be no second great one any more. If there were creating, there would be a second great one.

Yes.

For this reason, if they (?) that there is wisdom in what Allah asks of people and submit to Allah, then people, just as they benefit themselves, will suffer no injustice from all the beings Allah created. What are we saying?

If Allah Almighty what He says to people, what Allah Almighty says to people, if people say 'my Lord told me this' and His word, had I done it: if people do what our Lord, who programmed and created the worlds, who in the most beautiful way guides people, says, they will find life, they will find peace. Yes. If we think about it this way and come to it, then in the face of Allah's (?), not to submit to Him is impossible.

That is, none; flawlessly, flawlessly showing man in the most beautiful way the way, and those ruled by our Lord's commands who advance on the path He has shown never suffer injustice.

Well, Hodja, wasn't He giving calamities to perfect your nafs? Whether we want it or not, He will give us calamities, but there is a 'but' here. Listen well. For the person who knows Allah, that calamity will be a mercy. Mercy. My Lord is testing me, and if I succeed in this, surely my rank will rise. I will attain my Lord's mercy, he will say. And he will accept the calamity that comes from Him. O my Lord, You do not load on our backs what we cannot bear. This is surely for my good. He will say. He will say it is for my good. Accepting what comes from Him, he will raise his rank. He will receive its reward, and He will show you to people as an example.

Again you attained mercy, see. That calamity became a mercy for you. Again mercy. Allah does not will injustice for His servants. Yes.

So, through man's stubbornness, his rebelling against his Creator, his not believing in the books or prophets He sent, had Allah, to please this servant, done what he said, then besides the injustice the person (?) does to himself, many creatures Allah created would also have suffered torment and injustice.

(?): if Allah Almighty had always done what people said, to please them, since the human mind is deficient, today you see him doing something nice, tomorrow he suffers its harm. Oh, I made a mistake here. Look, I suffered harm here. Let me do this like this, he says. And trying and trying, by trial after trial, he tries to rise. So if Allah Almighty, according to people's minds, had fulfilled their wishes, not only he himself would be harmed; Allah's creatures too would suffer injustice. And our Lord would be (?). Well, does Allah not do what we say? Allah Almighty, within your own destiny, in proportion to your will, has you do what you say. Outside that, no.

Here is a verse for you: did you think that everything you wish for would come to be? Yes. That is outside your destiny now. He does not give it to you. Then why do we ask? You will ask. You will ask. And what will Allah Almighty say to you in the hereafter? Look, I have many more good deeds, he will say. What are these, O Allah? In the world you asked for what would harm you, or, since it was outside your destiny, well, since a burden you could not bear would land on your back, We did not give it to you. Because it was outside your destiny. You were patient about it; in return for your patience, today this is yours, He says.

Go ahead. So we will ask, then. Yes, we will pray. That is, we will ask. That is why, when we ask, man, He says, is very hasty. Very hasty. 'We prayed, but our prayer was not accepted,' they say, He says. And they accuse Allah of stinginess, He says. There is no such thing as a prayer not being accepted. All are accepted. All. But if it is within your destiny, it is granted to you in this world. If it is outside your destiny, in the hereafter, through your patience, if you are patient, of course, if you are patient, it comes before them, before you, as reward. Yes. Allah, with His mercy, although He protects them, their acting, without realising it, against their own interests is because Allah, as the Great One, permits them.

We have said 'Allah, as the Great One, has not permitted them'; yes, Allah as the Great One not permitting these either. Again out of His mercy to them. For this reason, out of Allah Almighty's mercy to the worlds, so that no being suffers harm, in people's great world, because of their nafs, not taking their wishes into account, He continues all His creatures as He created and programmed them, flawlessly and without deficiency, Allah Almighty. He gives each person his wish as destiny according to his desire and request. Since He knows what those coming until the Day of Judgement will do, He programs it this way.

Within that program, what lies within people's desires and wishes, by giving them that, He will run these worlds within His program until the Day of Judgement. As I said a moment ago, what is outside the destinies He will give you in the hereafter in the most beautiful way. For this, it is obligatory to do what Allah says and to submit to Him. Obligatory. Because He is our Owner; doing what He says is obligatory. If we observe the obligations, (?). If we turn our backs on the obligations, then we torment our own nafs.

Hold your finger to a candle flame like this and let's see how long you will hold it in that candlelight.

Surely it will hurt, and you will pull it back. If you cannot bear a candle flame in this world, in the hereafter that punishment of Hell, how will you bear it?

Yes, for this reason, in His verse, Allah says: Allah does not will injustice for the worlds. Those who do the opposite, who rebel against Allah, since they personally and individually wrong their own selves, their punishment belongs to them.