At-Tawbah 104: Do they still not know that Allah will accept the repentance of Allah’s servants and won’t turn back charity and that Allah is Tawwab (the One Who accepts repentance) and Raheem (the One Who very generously accepts repentance)?

That Allah accepts His servants' repentance, that He will not turn alms away, and that Allah greatly accepts repentance and is most merciful — do they still not know this?

Alms. Just now, on Samanyolu, on the news, we heard it. Someone from the media dresses up as a beggar. Dressed as a beggar, he collects money. In an hour, an hour and a half, he collected a hundred-odd lira. And he says: now I'll give this to a mosque. Don't give money to people you don't know. To the poor. Yet Allah Almighty says: help the one who holds out his hand to you. The one who holds out his hand. Now I ask you. If a person holds out his hand and asks, even if he's a trillionaire. Let him be a trillionaire. If he holds out his hand and asks, his being a trillionaire is a matter of conscience between him and Allah.

And my pitying that person and giving for Allah's sake is a matter of my conscience. What does this reinforce? "The Muslim is a brother," it says. If a Muslim holds out his hand to a Muslim and asks for money, asks for money, then, if he is his brother, he will give it to him. The Prophet also says in a hadith: Even if it is little, he says. Give, give even if it is little; do not accustom your hand to stinginess. Yes. If in this case, to the poor, to the needy, [we say] let him go and work — yes, of course he will work — if we say: sir, I don't know what this is, I won't give, our hearts harden toward our poor. Our hearts harden toward those in need.

And in this way we are cut off from one another. Whatever the person may be. Even if he's a trillionaire. Is he asking you? Is he making you pity him? Even if he has exploited your conscience. Allah Almighty says: give to the one who holds out his hand. Give to the one who asks, to the one in need, He says. Whether he is in need or not, give to the one who holds out his hand. Yes. They are our brothers. Even if he's a trillionaire, as I said just now. Maybe he has to pay money somewhere and it isn't enough. He comes and asks you. To complete his money. In this case, if we don't help one another, if we don't (?) one another, if with our conscience we do not feel compassion in our hearts for the poor and needy, and if we break these feelings of compassion by not giving, we become cruel.

Our feelings of compassion grow blunt. In this case the media is supposedly doing something. It shows this. So that you won't give. Yet it is unaware that, in religion, a brother in Islam's unity and togetherness, the feeling of pity for one another, the feelings of mercy in the heart are being wiped out by it.

What does Allah Almighty say? That Allah accepts His servants' repentance, that He does not turn alms away. How beautifully He says it. "My alms are not turned back." If you give, give. For Allah. You are giving alms, alms. Not zakat. Not of your wealth either. Alms. Directly, his single coin. Allah Almighty does not turn it back. And He prevents calamities that would come to you. Calamities. Those that would come within destiny. Your giving that alms — what does it do? It prevents calamities for you. That alms becomes an umbrella against calamities that pour on your head like rain. These non-Muslims, because they do not help one another, are already cut off from one another, and because they have turned their backs on Allah Almighty, they meet with calamities once, twice or three times a year.

And they are slowly leading us toward them too. They supposedly make programs. A program like this.

Yes. That Allah accepts His servants' repentance, that He does not turn alms away, and that Allah greatly accepts repentance and is most merciful — do they still not know, He says? Will they still turn their backs on these verses?

Since Allah Almighty is kind and merciful toward His creatures, people's sins, however many and great they are because of the mistakes they make, since there is no other god besides Allah, when these people turn back from the mistakes they made and ask Allah Almighty for forgiveness, there is no servant whom Allah Almighty will not forgive. Because Allah expects His creatures to return to His essence, to worship and obey their Lord. In this case, since Allah Almighty created us deficient in mind and, to hold a light before us and to be proof for us, sent His verses, our making mistakes with a deficient mind fits Allah Almighty's purpose in creating us.

Our making mistakes. Within this mistake, our returning to our Lord also fits our Lord's purpose in creating. Because we were created in helplessness. With the mistakes we make, we will ask Allah Almighty for forgiveness, and within this forgiveness, because we know our deficiency and helplessness and ask our Lord for forgiveness, we will attain our Lord's mercy. Why did He create us like this? Why does He want it this way? Because He gave us from His spirit. He did not separate us from His essence. (?) In this respect, of course, so that we can separate from the Creator — that we are in helplessness and in need of Him — making our nafs accept this, bowing our necks, raising our hands in helplessness to our Lord and asking from Him — since this fits our Lord's power of creation, since it fits His knowledge, He forgives us in return for our asking forgiveness.

Apart from this, those who out of pride and arrogance, out of their grandeur, (?), cannot bow to Allah, those who cannot ask Him for forgiveness — a place of punishment has already been prepared for them too. Yes.

Now Allah expects His creatures to return to His essence, to worship and obey their Lord. He does not expect this from any of His creatures. From the creatures He created. According to the duties He programmed them for, His creatures keep doing their duties.

Because He left man free in his own will, because He gave him (?) from His essence, because He gave from His spirit, because He created from Me — which people cannot accept. Look, they say, he is ascribing attributes to Allah, they say. To Allah. Alright. Now we are closing the matter here. We are answering those people. If I am ascribing attributes to Allah — in His verse, does Allah Almighty say: to those who ask you about the spirits, say: it is a command of my Lord? Is this a verse? It is a verse. Well, did He also give man from His spirit? I beg your pardon. Allah says it. "I breathed into Adam from My spirit," He says.

"I breathed into Jesus from My spirit," He says. "I gave the Prophet Muhammad from My spirit," He says. From His spirit. And in this case, since they are in human form, because Allah Almighty has (?) in them, if He has endowed man with forms of His essence, and if the majority of the people to come until Judgment Day also exist in Allah Almighty's essence, and however He appears, he too existed, he too existed, he too existed — if He can divide into whatever form He wishes, if through forms of His essence He can manifest to people, would Allah then have been given attributes? Yes.

This is another knowledge. As I said, they will learn. They will know the truth. They will know the truth, what is right. But it's alright if they don't know what this says.

If they cannot go that far, it's alright if they don't know. But the wrong interpretations in those verses — not me, but how they ascribe attributes to Allah Almighty, how Allah Almighty would not be aware of the future, and Allah Almighty, through the manifestation of the Prophet, revealing to him — their (?) this to Gabriel is truly something to think about. For example, (?), they say. Gabriel, they say. Gabriel (?). He hung down and came near, as close as two bows' length, they say — Gabriel, they say. (?), they say. How does it go to revelation? Within that place. With what mind, what knowledge, what understanding does he say this?

We continue with our lesson. So, because Allah expects His creatures to return to His essence, to worship and obey their Lord. Because, since He created them close to His essence, He expects those people — from ego, fame, renown, pride, arrogance, grandeur and the claim of self, from worldly desire — those He created, to strip themselves of these. In this case a person sees these deficiencies in his own nafs, sees the evils, and if he strips away toward Allah, he has surrendered Allah's creation to Allah, and since he has surrendered himself to his Lord by bowing his neck, because it fits Allah Almighty's art of creation, His purpose of creation, he attains Allah's mercy.

But those surrounded by fame, renown, pride, arrogance, ego, grandeur and worldly desire, since they turn their backs on Allah's verses, will these too be (?) to His punishment? Well, Hodja, if you say there are those who are Muslim and still have these traits — yes, if they too cannot reform their own nafs, then to the hereafter — if they pass on as Muslims — as Muslims, which becomes doubtful in this case — if they pass on as Muslims, and their sins outweigh their good deeds, he will stay in Hell until his own nafs reaches perfection, and after that he too will come out of there and will not stay there like one of the people of Hell.

He will attain Paradise.

In this respect, do they still not know that Allah greatly accepts repentance and is most merciful? That is, His servants returning to Him, asking forgiveness, bowing their necks before Allah; that Allah Almighty is the Creator, that whatever He created from the atom to the globe, all of it belongs to Allah — according to the verse in which Allah Almighty [says] the heavens and the earth and what is between the two know their Lord's remembrance. Every soul will taste death, and the inheritance of the heavens and the earth will remain to Allah — with the verse in which He says this. Will they still not recognize their helplessness before Allah Almighty's oneness and surrender to Allah?

Yes.

With this verse, with this noble verse, that Allah loves His creatures very much, and though, leaving people alone with their will, by the intellect He has given, He wills that His essence be known, man gets carried away by things of the nafs and of Satan, and, rebelling against Allah Almighty, they may not heed His commands and prohibitions. Then, realizing the mistakes he made, when he understands that he is a sinner, he repents to Allah Almighty with feelings of regret and remorse. If he promises not to do this again, Allah Almighty forgives the sins of such people. Now we will add more to this.

An addition. This was the outward word. Its essential inner word is: such people — within the destinies they gave to Allah Almighty, within their covenants — with their non-Muslim state in the worldly realm they lived in, then returning to their own fitrah, by having given Allah Almighty a good covenant, staying clear of the mistakes they made and returning to Allah; and since in (?), by Allah Almighty's own knowledge, he received no stamp at all that he would again be a non-Muslim, because his covenant was good — Allah Almighty will accept them as Muslims when they repent in the end. He already accepts all repentance.

Only those who can return repent. Those who can return. And among those who can return — apart from those who repent, do those who will not return have no repentance? They do. Well, will those be accepted too? Those repentances will be accepted too, but deeds depend on intention. On intention. So what does this mean? "I know the repentance of those who will return. They are intentional, sincere. But the other one, however much he repents, according to his own mind he thinks he will deceive his Lord. In fact he will not return either," He says. "But with the deeds he does, I will give him a (?).

But in the end he will turn back from this and return," He says. Because He knows. Yes.

(?) let a person's insight not be closed. When he makes a covenant with Allah Almighty, woe if he gives his covenant badly. The person whose wishes and desires are written as his destiny has, with these desires, dulled his feelings for understanding the truth, and in the direction of not recognizing Allah they have had their hearts sealed. In this respect, although they know of Allah's existence, do they still not understand that Allah greatly accepts repentance and is merciful? They do understand. But the feelings of hatred and arrogance in their hearts, to remembering Allah,

to understanding Allah, are a veil for them. In this respect they do not want to understand.