Ali 'Imran 18: Allah has proclaimed with justice that there is no deity other than Allah. And angels and the people of knowledge have borne witness. There is no God other than the Only One Who is Azeez (Exalted) and Hakeem (All-Wise).

So those siddiqs, what do they say? At the times before dawn, to their Lord they pray: Our Lord, You made Your Being known to us, You saved us from the darknesses, You settled peace in our hearts, You honoured us with the light of faith. We are helpless, we are in need of Your Being. You are the Lord of the worlds. The sins we committed knowingly or unknowingly, without intent, forgive us those sins. You are our Mawla, they say. Now, within the translations of the verses there are wisdoms; the verse that follows supports what we said. This is the wisdom: all our Lord's verses support one another.

When we write the verses, we see that the next verse is within it. What does it say now? Although we say it this way, Allah Almighty in (?): Allah Almighty has declared with justice that there is no god but Him, it says. Well, what were we saying a moment ago? In the verse a moment ago.

The angels and those of knowledge have also borne witness. How fine. Well, in the verse we've been explaining, what were we saying? They, seeing, seeing, in that divine presence say so, we say. Our Lord, we have had faith, we have believed. Because he saw. We gave the example of the man in Yemen. Or the man in Fezzan. Yes. The angels and those of knowledge have also borne witness. Muslims also bear witness, but to the unseen; these, however, knowingly.

There is no god at all but the Mighty, the Wise, it says. So those scholars, those angels know that besides Allah there is no god. I know it too, Hodja. Of course you know; you bear witness. You know too. But by degrees; I grade it like this. To a 6-year-old child: son, punch here hard. The boy punches it. You measure the force of the punch. 5 kilos. 5 kilograms. To a 12-year-old you say: son, punch here hard. He punches once. You measure. 15 kilograms.

To an 18-20-year-old you say: son, punch here hard. You punch. Thirty, thirty-five kilos, forty kilos of force. And to a person who has reached perfection. You say: punch here hard. With him you see it's eighty, ninety kilograms. Now they all punched hard. They all said: we punched hard. But one was five kilograms. One ten kilograms of force. Another twenty kilograms of force. Another eighty, ninety kilograms of force. Well now, although they all punched hard, can they match the force of the one who punched eighty, ninety kilos? So although you bear witness, bear witness to the unseen in the world, can you be equal to the faith of the one who sees?

Yes.

Of course you believe too. Yes. If your faith equalled the faith of the one who sees, one would master one's self and become aware of the manifestations.

Allah is the owner of justice.

Yes.

Allah Almighty has made His existence known to people in the best way they can understand: with His knowledge, with His examples, with His prophets, with His books, His miracles, with the reason He gave people, which in every person serves as proof upon himself, that besides His divine Being there is no other god He has made known with truth and justice. You have no loophole at all. What does it say? With His knowledge: creating the universe, with His examples; what does it say? Allah does not refrain from giving the example of a mosquito or something greater, it says. What does that mean? In a way that the most ignorant can understand and the most learned too can understand, We bring them parables and examples, it says.

Yes. With His examples, His prophets, the books He sent with them, His miracles, and the blessing of reason He gave people, present in each person as proof upon himself, that besides His divine Being there is no god, He has made known with truth and justice.

What is meant here by truth and justice: complete and flawless. Allah Almighty is free of every deficient attribute. You said truth and justice, but you won't be able to say: had He done this like this, you won't be able to say it; the reason is not that He uses force and violence on you; whatever you will ask, what you asked will have appeared, and from questions you will be cut off; this is Allah's, Allah's attribute: until the Day of Judgment, coming people, in answer to the questions they will ask; (?) at the Judgment, the punishment when they see: O my Allah, had You also said it this way, Your existence I would have understood better and worshipped You; they cannot say that, so He has made His existence known, proven it, and left no shortfall in making His Being known to people.

Allah Almighty, with truth and justice, that there is no god but Him, to people has proclaimed. For this reason He has left people free in their will.

Yes. After this, people, with their partial will, choosing their own paths themselves, in obeying or not obeying Allah are free. Allah Almighty: We, had We wished, would have created you as a single community, He says. A single community.

But Allah Almighty was going to create such a being that

that person, remaining free in his own will, by his own decision, his Lord would come to know. That's why Allah Almighty gave the partial will into man's hand, into the human's hand. I repeat: what is this, He gave the partial will into my hand? The decision to judge for myself, to govern myself, to decide for myself whether I belong to my Lord or not, He left to me. Now, there's the arena, He said. And that there is no god but Me, that there is no god but Allah, He has also proved. With the blessing of reason, with knowledge, with miracles, with prophets, with books, with scholars. According to the verse 'I call no one to account for what I did not announce', He made His existence known.

So Allah Almighty, in His justice, without any deficiency, free of deficient attributes, His Being openly manifest but manifest; as Abdulqadir Gilani said, to the eye that does not see, He is (?).

So for one of sound mind it is not necessary to see his Lord. His creating these worlds, bringing forth an order, generations continuing from this order, and our Lord creating these worlds from nothing and that He is their owner proving. If there were another god besides Him, since Adam he too would have spoken like our Lord. He would have spoken with verses like these. But we see that those who speak were born in the world of a mother and father and, declaring themselves chief, declaring themselves god, gave rulings by their own reason; that is what we see. Whereas what was Allah? He had neither family nor child.

He neither begot nor was begotten. He was self-subsisting by His Being. So in this case we see that like our Lord's speaking, that is, like the verses He sent us. You know, I say speaking; the verses are speech, He speaks with us. You know, I'm saying it in the words of the unbelievers, in the words of the polytheists I'm saying it. Muhammad's Allah speaks, they say. Because they worshipped idols. Does what they made with their hands speak? Of course they will say: Muhammad's Allah speaks. Of course He speaks. What does it say in the verse? Or do they have hands to hold with? Or do they have feet to walk with?

Or do they, it says, have tongues to speak with? Or do they have eyes that see? Or do they, it says, have ears to hear with? Like this; what is this?

We are not scattering the lesson; we're continuing. So He gave us partial will. The ability to judge for oneself: partial will. Choosing their own paths themselves, people are free to obey or not obey Allah. No one can force anyone, saying: you did not obey Allah. Nor can anyone, saying 'why do you obey Allah, give up the faith and creed you hold', force them.

Because people, in their own beliefs and cultures, are free. But ignorant, pitiful people, with (?), call beliefs that are not religion, that have no religion, a religion and, saying 'I serve Allah', serve shirk; those who serve shirk, with money, with material things, try to pull people to their own (?).

Yes.

Whereas our religion: lakum dinukum wa liya din. To you your religion, to me mine.

People cannot change their own or other people's destinies. They cannot change either their own or someone else's destiny. So in this case, what will happen if I force you, or if I don't? Our Lord does not say: when you explain to people, force them in the direction of your own belief. What does He say? My Beloved, not to use force but to convey the message I sent you. Mercy is from Me, He says. Mercy.

Pay no attention to their denying you. In their time they denied Me too, betrayed Me, He says. They betrayed Me too. So, in the light of these verses, when everyone made their covenant with their Lord, if what they gave Him, their wish and desire, through His will has become their destiny, the scholars, heirs of the prophets, knowing this, on no one impose hardship. They only convey the message and show Allah's paths.

Within a person's own belief, if there is a seed in him, it grows and thrives. Yes, if it's a dry plateau, a field, and in it no seed is found, it comes and goes like that. You cannot bring it to life. Yes, this belongs only to Allah. What? Changing destinies. You cannot change their destinies; this belongs only to Allah. Allah Almighty too, according to the verse 'unless We will, you cannot will'. There is no person who can change his own destiny and over Allah Almighty's will prevail.

The angels and those of knowledge have also borne witness.

They have borne witness to Allah Almighty's existence. Yes, gentlemen, I too bear witness that truly there is no god but Allah. Since He gave us of His spirit too, in human form it resembles us. When it says 'rose up in true form', to the Prophet once more it appeared. And the true form is the one in which it appeared to us at the address 'Alastu bi-rabbikum', the true form.

Look how nicely I'm explaining it to you. They got news from the one who saw, you know, from the one who saw. Yes. We're giving the meaning of the testimony of the angels and those of knowledge. Meaning. Allah is free of deficient attributes. He is what He says. Here, why does it not say 'people are witnesses' or 'Muslims are witnesses', but, meaning those of knowledge, that they bear witness to Allah's existence, that there is no god but Him; it points to those of knowledge. Allah Almighty. Why does He point to them?

When He created our spirits in the realm of Lahut, where people were divided into three groups, before them, when Allah Almighty said 'your Lord, certainly, is Me', the Prophet too was beside Him; he too bears witness: yes, this is it, he says. This is our Lord. A witness. You know, perhaps people wouldn't believe. Because He created in the same appearance. There's also a witness. A witness. That's why it says mercy to the worlds. A witness. The Prophet (peace be upon him) too strains himself, I mean, to have people witness our Lord as God, that there is no god but Him. To say: only this one created us.

He strains himself like this. He tries to introduce Him: this is it. So here too: there, Allah Almighty has it confirmed through the Prophet. Here, He has it confirmed through the scholars. That's a somewhat clearer meaning of it. We confirm it too. Yes. What does it say now? Those of knowledge here (?), He is what He says. Here, why does it not say 'people are witnesses' or 'Muslims are witnesses', but, meaning those of knowledge, that they too bear witness to Allah's existence, that there is no god but Him; it points to those of knowledge. Those of knowledge here, according to the verse, meaning people kneaded with Allah's knowledge: after a certain degree, these, by reforming the states of their self, become aware of Allah's manifestations.

In the stages after that, those of ilm al-yaqin, with the contented self (nafs radiya), Allah's knowledge-kneaded people are meant: they too, that there is no other god but Allah, bear witness along with the angels, He says. A moment ago we explained a bit more of its superiority. That such people will continue on earth until the Day of Judgment He also declares with this verse. If the verses continue until the Day of Judgment, such people will keep coming until the Judgment, and people who speak like me, those caught in the passion to be head, the superstitious ones, will deny. But the verses are very clear. If Allah's verses address the past, this time and the future, no one can deny these verses.

If, in the light of these verses, the superstitious also come forward and to these verses' (?) mean to hold themselves equal, if they hold themselves equal, they too will get fifty thousand slaps from fifty thousand places through their own words.

Yes.

That slap first comes from some of the people who listen to him. But pay attention: we always support verses with verses, and in what we say there are no words contradicting each other.

Even if it seems so, seems so, both are true. What we say is in that meaning. One took it this way, another that way. But we say it in this meaning.

That such people will continue on earth until the Day of Judgment, by this verse He declares. Because Allah's word, to the past, to past communities, to those living in the present time and to communities coming after us until the Day of Judgment is an address. So we wrote. Here, many secrets, I mean words, by saying them we hid ourselves, I mean. We hide. We (?). Why do you say it here? Here everyone listens to me. He can ask me any question he wants, but the people here cannot know me. Nor can they ask the question. people fall into doubt and hesitation. But here he can ask any question he wants.

And if he can't get from us the question he wants, he writes to us exactly like this: Hodja, you are one of the liars.

He's free to.

Yes.

According to the angels and those of knowledge also witnessing Allah's existence: until the Day of Judgment, among the people to come, such people aware of Allah Almighty's manifestations, kneaded with His knowledge; by mentioning their existence, that these scholars who will bring people to guidance will continue, He has given glad tidings, in effect. So in this hadith, 'the wali of my community is like a prophet of the Children of Israel', as the counterpart of that hadith he stated, what does it say? In a hadith: the wali of my community is like a prophet of the Children of Israel; as the counterpart of that hadith he stated, those of knowledge and the angels too have borne witness that there is no god but Allah; of that verse it is the counterpart and the proof.

Because they are heirs. Heirs, heirs who have seen the realms, kneaded with His knowledge, scholars.

What does he say? My heirs are the scholars, he says.

There is no god at all but the Mighty, the Wise. This is the counterpart of the verse, because Allah has, to those of reason, His Being in every respect made proven, and that He has no partner, no spouse and no equal He has made known. He is self-subsisting by His Being. All beings will one day perish; His divine Being alone will remain. He is the one who both causes death and gives life. All the worlds are in need of Him. He is most exalted and mighty. He who knows the state of all He created and meets their needs accordingly, who holds them under His rule and repairs them. That is, sets them right.