At-Tawbah 100: Frontiers (in matters of entering Islam) are those who first migrated (muhajireen) and the helpers (ansar); Allah is content with them and with the ones who follow them with goodness; and they are content with Allah. Allah has prepared for them paradises in which they will dwell eternally and beneath which rivers flow. This is the great salvation.

We have come to Surah At-Tawbah, verse 100. To verse 100. Those who were foremost in entering Islam, the first Muhajirun and Ansar, and those who followed them in goodness – Allah is pleased with them. And they are pleased with Allah. Allah has gardens beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever, prepared for them. That is the great opportunity.

This verse also affects me very much. Actually, all of the verses affect me. But some of them come as an even more affecting peak than others. For example, what does it say now? The first forerunners in entering the religion of Islam among the Muhajirun and the Ansar. The first ones. Who are they? Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Talha, the noble Companions. These are the noble Companions of the Prophet, the first forerunners, from the Muhajirun and from the Ansar. Whenever I read this verse, this event comes to my mind. The Prophet goes to Taif.

In Taif he tries to spread the religion. But the children begin to stone the Prophet.

With him is also his adopted son Zayd.

His feet bleed.

According to Arab law, when a traveler or a stranger enters someone's garden, he is considered his guest. He comes under his protection.

As he passes by there, passing through a garden, the owner of the garden there stops them, the children. At that moment Gabriel (peace be upon him) says: Allah Almighty sends you His greetings. If you wish, we will destroy this region, he says. The Prophet (peace be upon him), who came as a mercy to the worlds, prays to Allah Almighty. O my Lord, they did not know, forgive them, he says. And the throne of Iran, of Iran, that Khosrow devil, fire-worshipper, that fire-worshipper's throne the children and grandchildren of the (?) brought down. Yes. So, as he returns from there, as the Prophet returns from there, he comes across six people from Medina.

He tells the Medinans the truth.

The Medinans – one of them, the head of these six Medinans, says: O Messenger of Allah, (?), I have believed, he says. He says to his friends: Have you believed too? They say: Yes, it made sense to us too, we have believed too. Thereupon that first believer says to his friends: Do you know what this means? By becoming Muslims we are setting ourselves against all people. Do you know this? he says. Do you dare to face this? They say: Yes, we dare. The next year those six Medinans meet at the same place as twelve Medinans. After that they (?) Medina.

The first Muhajirun and Ansar.

These are mujahids.

Allah is pleased with them. And they are pleased with Allah.

With the Prophet (peace be upon him) announcing himself as a prophet, during the first spread of Islam, those who, believing in the prophethood of the Prophet (peace be upon him), believing in his prophethood, followed, followed the Prophet, are the natives of noble Mecca. As Islam came out into the open and spread, the polytheists oppressed them. They were forced to leave noble Mecca. And by the command of the Prophet (peace be upon him) they left noble Mecca and emigrated to illuminated Medina. These people were called the Muhajirun. The Muslims from Medina, those who had become Muslim, welcomed the Muhajirun with open arms.

And those who shared their homes and lands were called the Ansar.

Then some, with Jafar al-Tayyar – his uncle Jafar al-Tayyar – were sent to Yemen. In Yemen, Amr ibn al-As, who was not yet a Muslim then, being a friend of the King of Yemen, wants to take them to Mecca and torment them.

The King of Yemen summons Jafar al-Tayyar. Together with his distinguished companions. He asks him questions. He asks questions about Mary. And when Jafar al-Tayyar recounts the verse Allah Almighty sent down in the Quran, the King of Yemen's eyes fill with tears. What you tell, too, is like the light (?) coming from the same lamp, he says. And to Amr ibn al-As he says: in one hand, he says, the sun, in the other, he says, the moon – even if you gave me these, I would not hand these people over to you, he says.

Yes, the first Muslims, for the religion, those who waged jihad for Allah. The first Muslims. They were human too.

We are human too. He created all of us from the soul of the Prophet, Allah Almighty.

We are no different.

Nor are any of them, as souls or as humans, specially created. So then, in creation, by a person's own will, their own understanding, the characters they themselves give, people show what kind of people they are. Since we are human, and the One who created us shows them to us as an example, why should we not be like them?

Why should we not follow the path they followed? The world has remained with no one.

They departed with that glory and fame, with mercy (?) until the Day of Judgment.

And we, leaving calamities and (?) behind us, want to depart.

That is why we need to come to our senses. We need to (?) those people, those distinguished people. Let us not take the world's gain into our hearts and, in people's hearts, drive the light of faith away from Allah by exploiting their consciences.

Let us speak the truth. Let us take the truth wherever we see it.

Let us not blindly claim falsehood, let us not be stubborn.

So, saying we worship Allah, let us not be (?) Allah's wrath.

This is my advice to people.

Every person, every Muslim is a brother.

A proverb says: a brother throws at his brother, (?). So people need to support one another. Muslims need to stand back to back like brothers. If I explain wrongly, he will correct me. If he explains wrongly, I will correct him. In this way we will attain the mercy of our Lord. But we have no people with this feeling. Very rare. Very rare.

In slandering one another, in condemning those who tell the truth, in serving the religion of non-Muslims, we compete, we take the lead. Though I say the religion of non-Muslims, they have no religion. In helping the ideologies of those without religion and in irreligion, too, we take the lead. May Allah protect us. Whether knowingly or unknowingly.

That is why a Muslim needs to be very alert. A Muslim needs to use his mind a great deal.

So, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) (?) the religion of Islam, the Muhajirun and the Ansar led the way in spreading Islam. They stood by the Prophet (peace be upon him) and supported him. For this reason Allah praises them in the Quran. According to this verse, those who followed them in goodness – Allah is pleased with them. In line with the verse, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says in his hadith: My Companions are like the stars in the sky. Whichever of them you follow, you will find the truth. And those who followed them in goodness. They too have found the truth, it says. Yes. Allah is pleased with them too, it says.

With them.

Our

mothers and fathers would follow the hodjas so devotedly, because they felt this verse with all their heart. Those hodjas, they would say, are close to Allah. If we follow them, Allah will be pleased with us too. But the hodjas of our mothers' and fathers' time, those who told the truth, those who were right, who the religion of Islam received from their forefathers up to this time, inheriting it, and brought it down to us – in a very short time, with the so-called technology, the Dajjal, the Dajjal, they degenerated the religion of Islam. With media outlets, with their wealth, with their lives, with their money they served falsehood.

And we envied them and live unaware of our religion. We put tattoos on our bodies, earrings in our ears, anklets on our feet. We strip stark naked. Whoever behaves even worse – as I say bad – my tongue can't even bring itself to say it anymore. They become stars (?). they are the stars of kufr. Do you envy kufr? Facing a person who is burning, could you envy his screams as he burns? But unfortunately, since an event that will happen later we cannot see now, the nafs envies those states of theirs. And people chase after them.

Yes, saying Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Allah means that, in return for Allah being pleased with His servants, the servants are pleased with Allah; it means Allah giving to these blessed people until He has made them content. Also, for them there are gardens beneath which rivers flow. Imagine this person has a large piece of land. Springs gushing from this land, and through the joining of these springs these waters flowing as rivers across his land where they gush, with its mountains, rocks and plains, a land like emerald, well-kept vineyards and gardens, lands of flowers, scenery changing in an instant, and the air turning many colours like fireworks – this is how the Paradise Allah, being pleased, will give His servants, the abode of eternal bliss and its endless, inexhaustible blessings have been prepared for His servants.

And that salvation is this. That is, the great salvation is this, it says. People who seem free in the world have actually forgotten that they are travelers on a series of adventures. The beginnings of this journey have been closed to them. People who come to the world for the test, informed only of their lives in the world within their destiny, so that they would call their surroundings and themselves, and at the same time Allah, to witness, were sent to the world. So a person gets caught up in the world. If he denies his beginning and his hereafter, he wrongs his own soul. He has not escaped this prison of the world.

But if he believes he had a beginning, that is, that he was created by a first one, and believes that this Creator is Allah, and that after death there is the grave, the life of the grave, and after that the Day of Judgment breaking, and then again order being established in the hereafter,

and finally, with the coming of the Day of Reckoning, that people, because of their good deeds, attaining Allah's mercy, will reach that great salvation – if, believing this, they act accordingly, then those are the saved, and the great salvation is this. What does it matter if you escape from prison in the world? What does it matter if you escape torment in the world? After all, in the end there is death, death.

But even if the (?) life of the world were yours,

even if you attained in the world what people dream of but cannot attain,

if you turned your back on Allah and denied Him,

when this world's salvation, its living, its (?) life comes to an end, you will attain the suffering of an eternal, endless life. This is not salvation. Salvation – between two millstones. Whether you turn, whether you are ground, after all, this torment will end with death. But in the hereafter, if in the world you were pleased with your Lord and carried out His commands, you will attain a life of delight and pleasure in the abode of eternal bliss, and eternal salvation is this. Yes.