Yunus 22: Allah is the One who let’s you travel on the land and on the sea. And when you are in those ships, and those ships carry the ones inside with a pleasant wind, and they are in joy, a severe storm strikes that ship, waves attack them from all sides and they realize that they are encircled from all sides and pray to Allah with sincerity in religion, saying, “verily, if You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful ones.”

Surah Yunus, we've come to verse 22. The one who makes you travel on land and sea is He. Even when you are in ships, and those ships carry those in them along with a pleasant wind, and the passengers rejoice because of it, a violent storm comes upon that ship, and from every side waves assail them. And they realize they are surrounded on all sides, and making the religion sincerely for Allah alone, "We swear, if You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful," they implore Allah, it says. Yes. Now, the meanings are a bit deep, but let's talk a little about it.

What does Allah Almighty say? Well, let's come at it from here.

It is He who makes you travel on land and sea, He says.

The sea, and He makes you travel. "I built the ship." Even if you build the ship, it is still He who makes you travel. Why?

Every substance has a certain specific gravity. The specific gravity of water is one. Is that so? Isn't that right? As far as I remember.

Things of the wood kind, when their specific gravity is below one, float on the water. Since wood doesn't sink in water, it stays on top of the water.

Iron, metal, mercury and the like, with a specific gravity above one, sink in water. They sink in water. So that ship, weighing tons of iron, why doesn't it sink? What is the reason? So that ship weighing tons of iron, as far as it sinks into the water, gains a buoyant force equal to the volume of water it displaces; water has a buoyant force. It acquires buoyant force. That's why if you tied the ship's iron together, it would go to the bottom of the sea. But when it is given a certain angle and widened like this, as it sinks into the water, in proportion to the water that volume displaces, the buoyant force keeps the ship on the water.

That's how, with Allah's knowledge and power, He makes you travel on the sea. If the sea's water were above the substances He created, you could not travel on the sea. You would sink. However much carrying force it had, this is Allah's knowledge. That's why one must pay attention to Allah's words. So "it is He who makes you travel on land and sea" — "Hodja, if Allah Almighty's word is from our father Adam to this time, and from this time until the Day of Judgment, then in our father Adam's time, the one making us travel, what was it? (?) On land there were no cars, no this or that. What did they travel with?

Doesn't this word contradict itself?"

It doesn't. Why? He gave you a body as a mount. On land they make you travel with these bodies. "I clothed myself in flesh and bone, I appeared as Yunus," he says. First of all, your mount, your first mount, is the mount of the body. People who cannot grasp these things this way also enter paradise and hell together with their bodies anyway. Although we have proven with verses that paradise and hell are not entered with bodies, "we won't listen to this man," he says. "This man," he says, "is (?). In religion," he says, "he is bound by (?)." And there's one in particular. "This man," he says, "an old man.

He tells stories," he says. He himself, yes, a person between twenty-five and thirty. A child of yesterday, unaware of himself, a sleepwalker. A person who fits the verse "Do not be among the dead." Not understanding what they make him say, understanding nothing, a (?) child. He has become others' satellite. Others can't make him speak, they've taught him. They make him speak. Because they themselves are very (?).

Yes.

We no longer take them into account. They are mere kids. We no longer answer them at all.

So, in the time of our father Adam too, the One who made us travel on land did so with this mount of the body. Yes. Then with the development of technology, on land with vehicles, in the air with planes, at sea with ships we travel. Our Lord created the universe with knowledge. To man, the most honored of creatures, to man's command He gave all His creations. Since He gave man from His spirit, He also endowed man with abilities. With these abilities people, using their minds, make new inventions and so make the world serve them. Yes.

We read the verse once more. It is He who makes you travel on land and sea. It's now being described here how you speak. Even when you are in ships, and those ships carry those in them with a pleasant wind along, and the passengers rejoice because of it, when they rejoice, a violent storm comes upon that ship. From every side waves assail them, and they, surrounded on all sides, realize it. Making the religion sincerely for Allah alone, "We swear" — that is, they take an oath — "if You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful," they implore Allah.

Man is such that when he is saved from there too, he forgets what he said. As if the person who, on that ship, fearing for his life, took refuge in his Lord from the heart were not him, but a completely different person had come in his place; when he gets to land, as if he would never die, he cheers up, goes on his way and turns his back on Allah. Allah protect us.

In this verse Allah Almighty both proves His existence to people and gives a fine example. Namely: It is He who makes you travel on land and sea. According to the verse, Allah Almighty has given people a fine blessing: reason. Through this reason, and moreover with a mount of the body that Allah gave them, people using their minds, with Allah's creations, on land travel with their bodies. On land they travel with their bodies. Also, that people, with this fine reason given to them, first primitively in ancient times and then using their minds, technology, and benefiting from these, travel by the vehicles they made for sea, land and air — that the provider and creator of these is Allah, this proves.

Again, giving an example in the verse, it continues.

Even when you are in ships, and those ships carry those in them with a pleasant wind along, Let's put a full stop here. Let's read the end of the verse. How do people fly in the air? In the air. Iron (?). Here, the specific gravity of air is very light. Light. But a plane weighing tons flies in the air. If the plane has propellers, propellers — like a drill entering wood, the propeller embraces the air like this, and as it advances like a drill through the air, the wind passing beneath acts as a bed for those wings, a bed, an air cushion. Then the plane glides in the air. When you throw a piece of tin, a flat piece of tin, when you throw it horizontally, with a certain amount of air acting as a bed for it, it continues on its way.

Then when it is about to fall, it tilts slightly, leaning left or right, and falls to the ground. Against the earth's gravity. The earth has gravity. If the earth didn't have this gravity, everything would fly up into the air. And Allah Almighty created it with fine knowledge. If it's a jet plane — a jet. These work according to the law of action and reaction. The law of action and reaction. What is it?

The turbo, the propeller, spins fast. There are narrowing and widening pipes. Narrowing and widening. When air passes quickly through these narrowing and widening pipes, it draws kerosene into the engine. Into the engine. Kerosene shoots in, as thick as my thumb. Kerosene. There are these combustion chambers in a jet engine. Combustion chambers. Closed on three sides, open on one. Here, through the explosion of this kerosene in those combustion chambers, toward the open side it produces a tremendous action and pushes the plane forward.

Since there are many of these combustion chambers, rooms, there, with that power the plane moves forward, and as it speeds up, speeds up, when it reaches a certain speed — according to that plane's takeoff power, according to its weight, when it reaches a certain speed, those wings, by forming an air cushion, become able to hold the plane in the air, and the plane flies. The plane starts flying. Yes. So, Allah Almighty, for people to fly in the air, by placing the property of air and, in the world, along with those substances, combustible substances, explosive substances, that is, by placing petrol or oil — through such inventions people travel both on land, at sea and in the air.

Yes.

Knowledge. This is knowledge. So, to understand the verses — for a person who only knows Arabic and knows nothing of any technology to give meaning to these verses makes one laugh. Truly, it makes one laugh. That's why people use them in different meanings. When the verses are interpreted, they don't agree with each other.

Now we come to the rest of the verse where we put the full stop.

Even when you are in ships, and those ships carry those in them with a pleasant wind along and the passengers rejoice because of it — and I traveled by ship too. In the old days, in our time, ships on the Black Sea went from Istanbul to Rize, all the way to Rize, like this. Dolphins would race along with the ship. And we would go from the deck to the bow, the ship's bow, and watch those dolphins. They would race. And the sea was lovely, smooth as a sheet. The sun shining on it, the sea sparkling. Truly a peace fills a person inside. Peace. That is what our Lord describes here.

Even when you are in ships, and those ships carry those in them with a pleasant wind along, and the passengers rejoice because of it, a violent storm comes upon that ship. A violent storm. From everywhere waves assail them. And they realize they are surrounded on all sides, and making the religion sincerely for Allah alone: "We swear, if You save us from this, we will surely be among the grateful," to Allah they implore. And I experienced this myself, in my mother's arms. As a child, I was still a baby, apparently. My late dear mother, from Rize to Samsun, is coming. My mother is from Rize.

She goes to visit her mother, to visit her father. And me, the child, in her arms. On the way back they are caught in a strong storm. (?) on the ship. About to sink, that is. On the verge of sinking. The captain lowers the lifeboats. The lifeboats, the small boats. They were making announcements. And my mother got seasick on the ship. In a daze, that is, "my head is spinning," she says, "my stomach is churning, I'm vomiting," she says. "I implored Allah. O my Lord," she says, "if I get out of here, I will give Khidr five kuruş." And she even names Khidr, mind you. "I'll give Khidr five kuruş," she says.

Of course, my late mother is telling this at the time. A miracle appears. "On the ship's mast," she says, "a green light came."

"They said, we are saved," she says. "Then we saw," she says, "the sea became dead calm.

We went ashore," she says. "I forgot about this money," she says. "I forgot the five kuruş." She got ashore, after all; she was relieved. Then I'm about six or seven years old.

In front of our house there's a paved area, I mean, poured concrete. We call that the taşlık. There I'm playing a one-leg hopping game with the kids. The taşlık. I looked: a man of medium height, a bag on his back, (?) "Hey, Emine Hatun (?)," something like that, he says. He's knocking on the door like this. I said, "Uncle, my mother is at the neighbor's across the street; what do you want, what are you after?" "Son," he said, "your mother owes me five kuruş," he said.

"She owes five kuruş; let her pay it," he said.

"Wait," I said. "You wait here. I'll tell my mother and come back," I said. "(?) your money," I said.

I came and knocked on the door. At the late İkbal Teyze's. I said, "Is my dear mother here?" She said, "She's here." I called my mother. I said, "A man came; he said you owe him five kuruş. The man knocked on the door. He's probably waiting there," I said. "What kind of man? I don't owe anyone anything," she said. We came — the man is gone. He'd left. Well, in the evening she tells my father. She tells my late father. And my father says, "Wife, think carefully.

Did you promise anything to anyone?" "No," she says. "Think carefully again," he says. "You may have forgotten," he says. My late dear mother, after quite a while, that same evening, (?) said, "I remember, I remember." "What is it?" he said. "We got seasick on the ship," she said. "I vowed five kuruş to Khidr," she said. "The one who came to the door was Khidr," she said. "Now who will we give the money to?"

Yes. (?) said, "You can't find him. Why would you find him? In his name," he said, "let's give five kuruş to a poor person," he said. Yes. That's how a person forgets once out of the sea.

How fine. All of these are things actually lived. But my late mother (?). He created man from (?), that is, from the group of the forgetful. In this case, if people did not forget, life would be a dungeon for them. Could a person live without ever forgetting such bitter days? Yes. That's why, when he comes to his senses, that is, when he remembers, as long as he keeps his promise, his word. Yes. Now we continue. After explaining this part this much, I guess there's no need to interpret it any further here.

Yes.

Making the religion sincerely for Allah alone: "We swear, if You save us from here, we will surely be among the grateful," they implore Allah. So Allah, with this verse, encouraging people, calls out: O people, in such a hard time of yours, when you realize there is no more rescue for you, when you have nothing left to do and are left helpless, making the religion sincerely for Allah alone — the meaning here, making it sincere alone, the meaning here is: wholeheartedly, sincerely, affirming that there is no god but Allah, imploring Me — that is what it means. That is, it means imploring Allah. "We swear, if You save us from here, we will surely be among the grateful," they implore Allah.