Ali 'Imran 31: Say; “If you love Allah, obey me so that Allah loves you and forgives your sins”. Allah is Ghafoor (Forgiving) and Raheem (the One who very generously accepts repentance).

(?) verse 31: My Messenger, say: If you love Allah, follow me. If you love Allah, follow me. So that Allah may love you too and forgive your sins. Allah is most forgiving and most merciful.

Yes, what does it say now? My Messenger, say: If you love Allah, follow me. So that Allah may love you too. In this verse, Allah Almighty, the Prophet (peace be upon him), so that he would openly make His being known, sent him to the world as a mercy. Allah Almighty also sent many prophets to make His being known. Finally, the religion of Islam, whose rule will last until the Day of Judgment, and the four books as well; until the Day of Judgment His light Allah Almighty, who will complete it, sent the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), as the representative of the last religion, with the most exalted mission to the world.

And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: the scholars are my heirs.

Don't misunderstand this, mind you. Pay attention. Scholars these scholars, (?) of my ummah, are like the Children of Israel's prophets, he said. Those who have risen to the nafs al-mutmainna, attained the quality of a believer, and from there into the nafs al-radiya through the ilm al-yaqin gate have entered, and whose Lord, in that person, through verses has brought them up, and given them wisdom — such people are the Prophet's heirs. Not some person who contradicts himself and knows a bit of broken Arabic coming forward saying, I am a scholar. Those who will make Allah known in the fullest sense, make His Messenger loved, and the verses, without them contradicting one another, explain them to people with wisdom — those people are the Prophet's heirs, and according to Allah Almighty's verse: Follow me so that Allah may love you too.

In this case, he is a prophet. We will follow him.

As a scholar, I cannot say 'follow me', but I say this: Follow the verses of Islam. So that Allah may love you too. What is it? The verse of Islam is the Holy Quran. Follow the verses of the Holy Quran, so that Allah may love you too. Yes. And may our Lord forgive your sins. Are our sins forgiven by following the verses, Hodja? Yes, they are forgiven, my child. How are they forgiven? As long as you are governed by the verses, the light of faith in your heart will bring out your own helplessness, and you will repent to Allah Almighty. And He whose repentance is open, whose doors are open, who accepts repentance abundantly, Allah Almighty, will thus forgive your sins too.

Allah is most forgiving and merciful, we say.

Yes.

If people truly love Allah, they also follow His Messenger. If you ask a Muslim, 'Do you love Allah?', he answers, 'I love Allah very much.' No one says otherwise. If you look closely at these people, they make no concession from their nafs. Nor do they ever stop following Satan's footsteps.

They don't obey Allah's commands, they don't observe modest covering. They never leave off ills like alcohol, adultery and gambling. They don't care for prayer, fasting or zakat. But when it comes to words, they say, I love Allah. Unaware of the trap Satan and his nafs have set for him, he says, look at my heart. In a verse Allah: Were it not for your worship, what would We do with you, He says. Allah Almighty will call us to account not according to our hearts but according to our deeds. So now we ask these people: what kind of love of Allah is this?

If a person loves someone, he doesn't want to part from them. And if he loves that person even more, he won't hesitate to give his life for them. Now compare this love with your love of Allah within yourself. Without fooling yourself, think: do you love Allah or your nafs? If you loved Allah, you would do what He says, not step outside the verses, and follow His Beloved's path. So if you don't do these things and follow your nafs and Satan, according to the verse 'Have you not seen the one who deifies his nafs', having preferred Allah to these, since you preferred Allah to these, you will have fallen into shirk.

But if Allah had not tied deeds to intentions, no person could escape this shirk.

Let's go a bit (?). So, O human, we say: Without fooling yourself, think: do you love Allah or your nafs? If you loved Allah, truly loved Him, you would give up what your Lord said and forbade, the alcohol, gambling and adultery; from swindling people you would refrain, close the interest business and do good to people. If you loved Allah, if you loved Allah, you would slap Satan, and your nafs on the head with a sledgehammer, and reform yourself. And you, your Lord's (?), on earth a servant He wants, would be. So we are being deceived by our nafs. Why? Because of weak faith. Where from? Because we have not come to know our Lord well.

If they had explained these hadiths and the commentaries of these verses to us so that we'd love Allah, so that we'd fear Him; with words, without adorning words with gilded words and presenting themselves as something, without pulling them in other directions, but had made known that your Lord Himself is the absolute owner of this world, that everyone will give account before Him, that the hereafter without fail will one day be true — would people have fallen into today's state?

So think well, decide well.

Life is running out every second. Like a ship sailing the sea toward its destination, we go through life as a ship sails the sea, as it heads to its destination. So we cannot catch up with time past; it is gone.

Allah Almighty, so that we may catch up with time past, opened the doors of repentance to us. Through those doors of repentance, when we change the sins we committed in the past into rewards, by turning that load of sin into a load of reward, we catch up with time past too. So, O human, do not stay away from repentance. Turn to Allah, and every day, for the things you did, call yourself to account. Every evening: What did I do today? Whose heart did I break? To whom did I do good? Whom did I deceive? Did I backbite someone I spend time with, or did I say kind, sweet words to them? Can you take account of this every evening?

I do. Every day, every day I take account of what I have done. If, unintentionally, being human, I have broken someone's heart,

I look for ways to make it up to him, and finally, after making amends with him, I feel at ease.

Can you do the same? Do it, reform your nafs. The world is a passing realm. We will leave here anyway. So, those they call 'people of pride', people who talk of hurt pride, by even an ant's length, with that proud self, before Allah cannot go. Not even an ant's length.

One of the (?) says this. To draw near to Allah, I found all the doors crowded. I found the door of ailment and humiliation empty. I went in there, drew near to my Lord, and when I returned I came out through the same door. I found the other doors crowded, that one empty, he says. Do you know what the door of ailment and humiliation is? This does not mean that you are (?), that you are in a (?) state before people. You broke your nafs; against those people's proud selves, you were governed by your Lord's commands. What people said to you, you lost within yourself like (?), and for your Lord's sake, what people said, in your own heart you forgave.

Those people see you as contemptible, as abased they see you, they see you as low. But you were a believer; you were a mirror to them. In fact, they saw themselves in you as low and abased.

People cannot reach this state; they cannot reform their nafs this way. That is why, deifying their own selfish desires, they continue to live. You ask them: do you love Allah or your nafs? I love Allah. Well, which of Allah's verses have you fulfilled?

And against that, which things your nafs steered you to have you carried out? Which did you do more? Can you compare within yourself?

Yes.

So.

Follow My Beloved's path.

Because the religion of Islam, to people, Allah Almighty sent with the Holy Quran, and made him a prophet over us. Obey that prophet. Obeying him is obeying Allah. Obey the scholars too. Here, perhaps, thinking 'the Hodja speaks like this so that he is obeyed' — so that no suspicion comes to your mind, I don't say 'obey me'.

Obey Allah's verses. Whoever explains Allah's verses, obey him. yes, so that Allah may forgive your sins too. So if you don't do these and follow your nafs and Satan, according to the verse saying 'Have you not seen — you deified your nafs, deified it', because you preferred Allah to these, you will have fallen into shirk. Tomorrow, tomorrow on the Day of Judgment, before Allah Almighty: 'O so-and-so, son of so-and-so, come here.' 'I told you not to do this, and you did it.' 'I said don't do that, you did it.' 'I said don't do this, you did it.'

'You deified not Me but your own nafs.' 'Because you saw My command as lower than your own nafs, your nafs as above My command, you associated partners with Me' — if He says this, what will you do?

What will you do?

We say: O human, use your reason. Look, look at our Lord's mercy. Look at His infinite mercy. Deeds depend on intention.

Yes. He will say: You knew your Lord as Lord, but you couldn't give in on this proud self of yours. That is His mercy. If He wished, He could call us to account as I just said. He'd say, you committed shirk. But since His mercy surpasses His wrath, He will say: yes, you held your self in high esteem. You did not deny Me, but you did not do what I said — if He says so, won't you be ashamed before that tenderness and mercy? Won't you truly feel shame? Aren't we human? Don't we have feelings?

Yes. So we will use our reason. We will strive to be servants to Allah and a community to His Beloved.

But if Allah had not tied deeds to intentions, no person could escape this shirk.

So here we address people in a different language. O human, we say, don't distance yourself from Allah out of fear of your sins.

You, Allah — a place to flee from Him you cannot find. You cannot find a place to flee from Allah. Because Satan will say, 'Oh, you are a sinner, what need is there for you to say Allah, you are a sinner anyway,' and drive you completely away from your Lord. But you: my Lord is all-sufficient, His doors of repentance are open. As the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, even if your sins reached the clouds in the sky, when you repent once, Allah Almighty turns it into good, according to the hadith; since our Lord is most forgiving of sins, while time is in hand, while this soul is in the body, give Satan a slap in the mouth, bring the sledgehammer down on your nafs's head as I said, and the moment you return to your Lord you will have won back the time past.

What do we say? O human, don't distance yourself from Allah out of fear of your sins. You cannot find a place to flee from Him. Such feelings are Satan's (?) to you. If you love Allah, Allah loves you too. Forgive your sins with the worship you do. For Allah is very merciful to His servants, most forgiving and compassionate. So turn to your Lord, love Allah, so that He loves you too, builds up your world and your hereafter, and you attain salvation.

Yes.