Yunus 50: Say; “(Oh idolaters), if Allah’s punishment comes to you during night or during day (what will you do in this case)?” Which of these do the wrongdoers wish swiftly?

Let it be kept ready here, there are those working (?); when it runs out we have trouble.

Say: O polytheists — polytheists; he doesn't say disbelievers, mind you, polytheists. Who is a polytheist, who is a disbeliever? A polytheist is an idolater who recognizes no Allah, book or prophet. Who is a disbeliever? Those from the People of the Book who did not enter the religion of Islam. Disbelievers.

Well then, O polytheists, what do you say? If Allah's punishment came to you by night or by day, what would you do? Which of it are the guilty in a hurry to demand? The guilty. You ask Allah for a punishment.

O polytheists! Allah's punishment, by night or by day — if it came to you, what would you do? Which of them could you turn back? Take the waves of the tsunami. Take disasters of the earth, earthquakes. Take volcanoes.

Hurricanes, gales, tornadoes, suddenly. Every year, he says, We send three or two calamities on non-Muslims so that they remember the truth. But sadly, he says, they will not remember the truth at all, he says.

Well then, in this case, do you have a (?) in your hand? You ask Allah for punishment. With what power?

A person will not go far to look for Allah. He will look for Allah in himself. In himself. A person of sound reason will ask himself questions. Who am I? He will ask this. What am I? How was I created? How did I come into being? He will ask himself this. And even if he had never known Allah, he will see that he himself is equipped with knowledge. The ears not hearing every sound, hearing within a certain (?), the eyes taking a photograph in an instant, the heart pumping at a pressure of one atmosphere, one atmosphere. adjusting the air pressure of 83 kilometres of height according to sea level, and through the heart's internal pressure and the external pressure being equalized, a person finding life.

Going up into the mountains, when the inner pressure is greater, from the ears and noses blood spurts out. Yes. Since such knowledge would not come about by itself out of the blue, a person, without going far at all, if he makes a little use of his right, must say: there is one who created me, and bow to Him. İbrahim Fakirullah Hazretleri says it like this too. I was searching for the beloved, he says. He turned out to be the soul within the soul, he says. Yes.

A person will not go far at all. He created everything within him. A human is a world, a universe; but as long as a human is of his nafs, since the nafs, like an insatiable monster, has a sickness of sweeping away whatever comes before it, he oversteps his own being, and with Satan's temptation, by being given haste, he loses his mind and attacks left and right with carnal feelings. Just as there are some who don't know themselves, who cannot use their reason — I'm not belittling them — madmen. They fall into the state of people who, like those madmen, don't know what they're doing. Yes. By his creation, man has been created honourable.

So that this honourably created human, on the earth, can maintain his honour, he was given a fine intellect. So Allah Almighty says to those who don't use their intellect: do you never use your intellect? Do you never reflect? Do you never think, he says. Why does he say this? O man, I created you most honourable. I made you honourable above the worlds. I created man in the most beautiful form. I gave you of My spirit, he says. With your part, I (?) you to My essence. Surely, so that you can act in ways worthy of Me, here is the Quran for you, here are verses for you, here is what will maintain your honour, (?).

But if you go outside this, that nafs in you will abase you, he says. Abased. You fall to the level of the four-legged ones roaming the earth, and from there go on to an even more astray state, he says.

This is the distinction between people who go with their nafs and those who go with their intellect.

Why does Allah make us worship?

I mean, is Allah in need of our worship? By making us worship, he both keeps our own bodies in health and well-being, and, so that we can master that monster in us, by strengthening our will, so that we may become an honourable creature, an honourable human on the path Allah has set, Allah Almighty puts His verses before us. He does this for our own sake.

And how beautifully the Prophet says in his hadith: the acts of worship you have done, he says, if they don't keep you from evil, are a burden for that long, he says. A burden. So Allah Almighty makes us worship so that us, that is, as humans, with a bit of the part He has given us, He may make us fit among His creations — that is why. Yes. So as long as a person is bound by the verses, this one, he says, is that person. That is a person to be trusted. That Muslim who is bound by the verses — if a person is not safe from his hand, his loins and his tongue, then his faith, he says, has not reached perfection, he says.

His faith has not reached perfection. Yes.

And he says: Say, O polytheists, what do you say? If Allah's punishment came to you by night or by day, what would you do? What would you do? You can't do anything. Because you are powerless.

Which of it are the guilty in a hurry to demand, he says. That is, which of the punishments, of its punishments, do they like, he says, that they demand it in haste.

My beloved, say: now tell me. If Allah's punishment came to you by day or by night, while asleep, while amusing yourselves, or while engaged in trade — the guilty ones, those who don't believe Allah's punishment will come, which of these punishments are they in a hurry to demand? Is an earthquake good? Is a hurricane good? Look, the other day a north-easter blew. The north-easter in Istanbul — you must have seen it on television. A storm, it turned into a storm. Roofs flew off. Cars ended up under the roofs. In some places there was flooding.

And one person died, I think. Yes, they were carrying his funeral.

Mind you, we are not giving those people as an example. As an example: when Allah's punishment will come is not known. That person, for example, his term had come and he died. Not because He bestowed it. In this case, do those who don't believe, denying that Allah and the hereafter are true, think they will just be left with what they have done?

Mankind is under such a responsibility — if only he could know it, under such an accountability — if only he could know that too, under such observation — if only he could know that too, if he knew these things, then just as a person among people preserves his decency and modesty, where he is alone too, in the same way, his decency and modesty he would preserve.

Yes.

Why in the verse does Allah Almighty say to the Prophet (peace be upon him) O you prophet who wraps himself in his garment and lies down? Yes, wrapped in taqwa. Because he knows that he is under observation at every moment. He knows at every moment that his body will bear witness against him.

He knows at every moment that we will be called to account before our Lord for what we do. So there is such a yoke on our necks that people are unaware of that yoke.

If people had known even their Lord — I mean the Muslims, the Muslims; leave aside the disbelievers, they are already disbelievers —

they would not be subject to punishment, except (?). Today's Muslims would not uncover and expose themselves like this, the marks the disbeliever, calling it fashion, had stamped even on his private parts, they would not have tattooed on their own bodies, and would not, recognizing no prayer, no book, no prophet, having become like that, wander around aimlessly like this, like this. Who is responsible for these? Those who make mistakes like this in the Holy Quran. That's one. Those who explain the verses as they see fit and with these words lead people into (?). That's two. Instead of telling of Allah and the Messenger, those who say Ahmet did this, Mehmet did that, Hasan did that, Hüseyin did that, and chase after gossip.

Those who, concerning the noble Companions, condemn one, speak ill of another, who, supposedly telling the truth, gossip to people amid superstitions and tarnish those distinguished Companions — what does Allah Almighty say? Look now: as for entering

the religion of Islam, the first emigrants and helpers who were foremost in it, and those who followed them in goodness — there they are, he says; these Ansar and Muhajirun — those who say, no, that villager did this, this one did that, because this one did this, that one did that, and tarnish them, who throw mud at them. Yet since Allah Almighty says 'those who followed them in goodness', who are you? While you ought to follow him, you speak against him. You run counter to this verse and fall into the state of a wretched person unaware of himself.

So, the leading figures of such people who don't know themselves come out and speak on television in a way that turns people's stomachs, without thinking that tomorrow they will give account before the Truth — people who have deified their nafs and become Satan's toys. People who, for worldly gain, for fame and glory, for pride and arrogance, court Allah's wrath — such people; and people who take on these people's burden too, and in this transient worldly realm, in a way that leaves it subject to Allah's wrath, sell their life.

Now compare people. Compare what is being said. Who is speaking in what way? Which one speaks contrary to the verse? Which one speaks correctly? Had they known the verses... As they were saying a moment ago, those superstition-mongers, thinking Allah is unaware of the future, the 140th verses — those who fabricate them like this by their own reason and interpret them that way — cannot escape the burden, these people.

Yes.

Say: O polytheists, what do you say — if Allah's punishment came to you by night or by day, what would you do? Which of it are the guilty in a hurry to demand? My beloved, say: now tell me, if Allah's punishment came to you by day or by night, while asleep, while amusing yourselves, or while engaged in trade —

the guilty ones, those who don't believe in Allah's punishment, that His punishment will come — which of these punishments are they in a hurry to demand? Do the unbelievers, by denying that Allah and the hereafter are true, think they will just be left with what they have done? Surely Allah Almighty's painful punishment will touch them. According to the verse in which He says: That day the judgment belongs to Allah. In the great court — e leysallâhu bi-ahkemi'l-hâkimîn — when Allah Almighty, the judge of judges, calls every soul to account: today what you have earned, as the recompense of your own two hands, will be given to you in full — according to this verse of His. Since there will be no hole to escape into, O guilty ones, you who deny Allah, who take Allah lightly and want to go beyond Allah's commands, who push the limits —

that day, even if they had not one world's worth but two worlds' worth of jewels, they would want to give it as ransom and escape from this, from this punishment. Yes. Since Allah Almighty is in no need of His creations, and since people cannot create anything from nothing, this verse means that there is no favouritism for anyone. What each has earned, as the recompense of his own two hands, will be given to him in full. There is favouritism. For whom is there favouritism?

In the hereafter, for people who have attained Allah's mercy, there is favouritism. What kind of favouritism is this, Hodja?

Since you are given what you earned, the recompense of your (?) two hands, plus, he says, there are favours for you from your Lord, he says. That is the favouritism. Isn't it favouritism? Plus there are favours for you from your Lord. Yes. Who would not strive for such a life? This is a realm of travellers. Travellers. We are on a journey. That is, we are people who travel. Think of a ship, a ship. Inside the ship we are going across oceans, night and day. Here we will go hungry, go thirsty. (?) we will fall ill. Of course we will help each other. We are travelling on that ship. We are all servants created by Allah.

In the very end we will go ashore at a harbour. That harbour is one where, (?) the Truth remaining eternal, all souls tasting death, we will return to our Lord — such a harbour. So on this journey, if on that ship, in this realm of travellers, we show good conduct and good behaviour, how happy for us. If not, if we drown it in strife, set people against each other and act selfishly, then woe to us.

Every nation has a term; so if, before this term came, at their wishes Allah's punishment had come down at once, not a single living creature walking the earth would I find. Yes.