Yunus 24: The example of the worldly life is like the water that We send down from the sky; the plants of the land thicken and tangle up with that water. Finally, at a moment when the land adorns itself and beautifies, and when the owners assume that they have power over it, Our order (calamity) comes during a day or night and We uproot it as if it had not been there the day before. For a nation of understanding, this is how We explain Our verses.

Surah Yunus, verse 24 — we're beginning. The life of this world is like water We send down from the sky, it says. What is water? Mercy. What is this mercy? It gives life to living beings. It makes plants grow. There is no life without water. There are three things; if one of them is missing, there is no life. Air, sun and water. Yes. The plants of the earth, which are among the food of people and animals, thanks to that water grow lush and intertwine, it says. At last, when the earth has put on its adornment and is decked out in many colors, and its owners think they have power over it, by night or by day Our command, that is, Our disaster, comes to it, and as if it had not existed the day before, We make it uprooted and mown down.

Thus We explain Our verses for people who reflect well.

We have no security whatsoever other than Allah. We have no security in our hands even for a moment later. Allah Almighty gives a very fine example in this verse. If you lean your back on your vineyard and garden, your money, your property and possessions, and forget Allah — a calamity that Allah Almighty will give you gradually surrounding you, causing you to suffer injustice, and taking the riches in your hand and casting you into poverty: this is Allah showing you His command over you. What command? That apart from Him there is no power that could help the worlds, His creatures; that we have no security other than Allah; that neither property nor possessions nor, let's say, children benefit a person; that every soul, with the actual deeds it did, is responsible to Allah Almighty — He makes this known so beautifully in the verse.

If you lean your back on Allah's creations, on property and possessions, on Allah's creations, and that Creator you forget, then over a certain time, gradually, He gives calamities to bring people to their senses. It says so in the verse as well. What does it say? We test you sometimes with your lives, sometimes with your property, it says. Test. This test isn't necessarily because I leaned my back on property and forgot Allah.

Allah Almighty does it so that we prove to ourselves, in wealth and in want, what kind of people we are, to make us witnesses. Otherwise there is not a single living being to come until the Day of Judgment whose deeds Allah Almighty does not know. The meaning here is that, by Allah's attribute of being Allah, everyone, through the actual deeds they did, the rewards and sins they earned, by their own will, their own will, with the judgments they made by their free will, is responsible to Allah Almighty — our Lord shows us this so beautifully with verses and examples. What does it say? When the whole world, it says, puts on its (?) and is adorned, when your vineyard and garden have blossomed and given you the finest plants, if you trust in these and say "I have property and possessions," say "I will get a harvest from these," though you have no security in your hand, if you forget your Lord — one day, it says, when you get up in the morning, if you see burned cedar trees, floods in place of your garden, it says, then you'll have seen that not from your property but from your Lord you got the slap, it says; from your Lord.

That's what it says anyway: We make it uprooted and mown down. Thus We explain Our verses for people who reflect well, it says. What is a people who reflect well? One who, without looking at property and possessions, for the provisions Allah gave him, to Allah Almighty gives thanks. Within this gratitude, if He wills, Allah Almighty may squander your property. Not within a burden you cannot bear, but within the burden you can bear, within the characters you gave, within your degree, He tests you. For although our Lord knows what people will do, so that man has no more questioning of Allah Almighty, He tests him in wealth and in want too.

In this case a person proves himself, what kind of (?) he is. That's why Allah Almighty gives people calamities in wealth and in want. In this case, if a person submits to his Lord in every situation, he wins his test. Allah Almighty again in this verse gives proof of His existence — that apart from Him there is no god.

How does He prove His existence here? The property He gave, that He adorned — with that mercy He sent down from the sky, He gave you these provisions; if you don't see the One who gives the provision, and lean your back on what Allah gave you, I will do the same to you, He says. Is there, He says, a god besides Me, or a power, that could save you from this disaster? Yes. And He gives a fine example, it says. He gives a fine example. He gives the example of rain falling from the sky, how He revives the living beings on earth by giving them life with water. If Allah has willed drought for a land, He cuts off its water, and that land's soil turns to desert.

And people begin to complain. People.

We experience it in our time too. From time to time. From time to time. We experience it in our time too. Our dams dry up. "No, they'll form clouds in the air and make it rain." They spend billions on artificial rain. In the end they go out for the rain prayer. And people with ulterior motives laugh at them.

Our lesson isn't politics. But to seeing eyes, to seeing eyes, Allah Almighty shows His miracles. Before your eyes, He says, hundreds of miracles appear every day. You are blind, you don't see, He says.

I said a moment ago that our lesson isn't politics. But one is forced to point out certain things.

The state at our head, those who govern the state, those before them, those before them, while they governed the state, we suffered droughts. We suffered water shortages. Didn't we suffer? We did. Allah gave us calamities. We didn't wake up. We didn't wake up. Because their way was not a way. Their course was not a course. Now, before your eyes, since these men came to power, you suffer neither drought nor want.

And on top of that, we live in plenty and abundance. Around, around Turkey, blood is flowing everywhere. Hunger, thirst, states you call civilized writhing in want, their technology or their proofs (?), Turkey living in a bed of roses. If this isn't our Lord's mercy, what is it?

For the one who says Allah, if it isn't Allah's help upon him, what is it? Will you explain to me the (?) of this? Look, our lesson isn't politics, but. Here we see Allah's — when one says Allah, when a person says Allah — Allah's help to that person. But for this you need seeing eyes.

Yes.

So, that it is Allah who sends down water from the sky, and that with this water the earth's plants put on their various adornments, that is, adorned with rivers, flowers, vineyards and gardens, at such a time, a person who owns this, (?) — this person, forgetting his Lord, imagining himself mighty and a sovereign, toward the creations of Allah, who owns the universe and holds the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, claiming them as if he had created them himself — the heavens' and the earth's inheritance is Allah's, according to a verse — toward Allah's creations acting (?), the person who turns his face from Allah, at the very peak of pride and arrogance; when, in arrogance and selfish desire, he looks down on people, this person who leans his back on Allah's creations — by night or by day, when Allah's command comes, that is, when an earthquake, a fire, a flood disaster, a tornado, a hurricane, such events occur, you see that this man's property, as if it had never existed in the world, uprooted and mown down, a heap it has become.

Yes.

And then you see that this man's property, as if it had never been there, uprooted and mown down, has become a heap; this is the state of the person who turns his face from Allah: such loss.

Do you want to do injustice to a person? Do you want to take revenge on him? Give him wealth. Raise him to a certain position. Then take him from there and put him in the lowest place. This is humiliation for a person.

Allah Almighty gives us abundance too. Abundance. Behind this abundance, instead of thanking Allah, if we, on what Allah gave, lean our backs, then Allah Almighty too: you did not value the wealth. You did not give thanks for these blessings I gave. You brought (?) to your nafs. With Satan's temptation of you, you followed him. Today, He says, the punishment you will bear in the world is this. What is it? Thirst, drought, fire, (?), disaster, loss of property. Yes.

Thus We explain Our verses for people who reflect well, says Allah Almighty. So if a person does not make jihad with his property and his life, if, knowing that all these possessions, the blessings of the world, are a grace from Allah to him, he does not thank Allah, if he does not grasp that he has no branch to hold on to except Allah, in the end, just as his property in this world (?) and is gone, in the hereafter, like a bankrupt merchant with no such gain, alone and forsaken, with neither intercessor nor helper, on a day when he will have none — yes, these people, without provisions and with a load of sin, will have bought the abode of hell.

Thus Allah gives examples to people who understand. So that, He says, they may reflect. So that they may reflect.

Yes.