Yunus 48: They say; “If you are truthful, when is the time of this promise (punishment)?”

Surah Yunus, verse 48: If you are truthful, when is this punishment, they say. Who are they? The (?), the polytheists, those who turn their backs on Allah. People who have not believed. What is faith? Faith, as I know it, is first tawhid: La ilaha illallah. Then Muhammadun Rasulullah. Then faith in all the prophets. Then faith in Allah's angels, faith in Allah's books, faith in Allah's messengers, faith in the good and evil Allah gives to people. Faith in rising after death. This is faith as I know it. But if a person leaves out one or several of these, his faith does not count as faith. For example, he believed in the prophet, his own prophet, but did not believe in the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

His faith is not faith; he is without faith. He believed in the Prophet (peace be upon him), but did not believe in the other prophets. He too is without faith. He too is without faith. Well, when we say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah, aren't we Muslim? When we say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah, if we affirm with our tongue and confirm with our heart, it is faith. A faith we do not confirm with our heart is not faith. Say it with your tongue as much as you like. If you said La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah with your tongue, you have believed in the other prophets too. If you did not believe in the other prophets, did not, your faith is not faith. And you did not confirm with your heart the faith you said with your tongue.

Well, what happens then? Then you join the ranks of the hypocrites. The ranks of the hypocrites. Yes. Now let's say you did not believe in rising after death. Again you are without faith.

If a person says La ilaha illallah Muhammad alayhissalatu wassalam, that is, if he says "ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh," this person must fully obey that faith we recite in the tahiyyat so that he has believed. What does it say? To believe in Allah's angels, His books, His messengers, that rising after death is true, in destiny and in evil, within "ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh." When you go outside this, when you go outside this line, you join the ranks of the hypocrites. You say it with your tongue but end up not having affirmed it with your heart.

Well then, Hodja, the man is a Muslim, he says it with his tongue. "Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan 'abduhu wa rasuluh," he says. This man also confirms it in his heart. He does. But he denies some of the prophets. He says, he is not my prophet.

What shall we say to this now, Hodja? Aren't there such people? There are. There are. Well, what shall we say to this? We will say this: in the circle of ignorance, ignorance; with faith but without knowledge; the person who corresponds to this couplet of Yunus Emre: if you put a black stone in water and boil it for forty years, it is still stone, still stone, it will never soften; not that, it is like this; the ignorant are like this too, he says; he enters the ranks of the ignorant. But he is sincere. He has faith. His deeds and intention this way, his heart, Allah knows though. His heart, Allah knows. It is between his heart and Allah.

If you ask us, outwardly we say: if you deny like that. Look, he says all prophets are true. If you deny this, saying of these prophets "not my prophet," you become a kafir, we say. Outwardly we cut this like a knife. Outwardly. But inwardly it is between the person and Allah. His state. Yes.

If you are truthful, when is this promised punishment, they say. The polytheists and hypocrites, those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, addressing the Muslims: if you are truthful in your words, when is the punishment you speak of, they say.

When I read this, an event I lived through comes to mind.

In Istanbul, in Yeşilköy, someone said to me: hey, you are (?) always saying something. I said, I always recite. I said, I do my work; what do you get out of it, he said, reciting this much? You wouldn't understand, I said, I benefit a lot from it, but you, I said, cannot know this. He said to me: since, he said, you are so right, he said, if you know so much, come on, he said, bring about the Day of Judgment tomorrow, he said, just like that: come on, let the Day of Judgment come tomorrow, he said. But I'm telling you, he said: the Day of Judgment will not come tomorrow, he said. How do you know, I said.

I just say so, on my own, he said. Are you saying it believing in our Lord, or not believing, I said. In our Lord. Of course there is still a set time. But, I said, the time of the Day of Judgment belongs to Allah alone. Now Allah's command may come upon you too. If you die, I said, then your Day of Judgment comes, I said. No, I mean the Day of Judgment of the world, he said. The next day came: look, didn't I tell you, I said. That the world's Day of Judgment would not come.

These are people of this kind.

We know them. What will you say? Explain to him as much as you like. Yes. People who live by the judgments they make with their own minds.

So the polytheists and hypocrites, those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, addressing the Muslims: if you are truthful in your words, when is the punishment you speak of, they say. Since their beliefs are built on denial, since they deny Allah, since the destiny written for them is their own desire and wish, in this realm too, in the direction of their own desire and wish, just as in the realm of the hereafter, they deny Allah. Yes.