Ali 'Imran 38: Therein, Zachary made a supplication to his Lord: “Oh my Lord, bestow upon me from You a good offspring. Verily, You are the One Who hears supplications!”

Surah Al Imran, verse 38. About Mary we were talking, about the family of Imran. Zechariah (peace be upon him) takes on the care of Mary. And when she reached the age of youth, he has a mihrab built for her, a mihrab.

When leaving he locks her room, when he comes he opens it with his own hand, and beside her he would see food. When he said, O Mary, who gives you this, she would say: my Lord gives it to me. Well, in this situation, Zechariah (peace be upon him) prayed there to his Lord, it says. He prayed. What does it say? There Zechariah prayed to his Lord. My Lord, grant me from Yourself good offspring. Surely You are the One who truly hears prayer, he said. A prophet's prayer will of course be accepted. This is a prophet. Something like this may come to your mind: if a prophet had prayed outside his destiny, would it still happen, since we say a prophet's prayer is accepted? Well, they have desires and wishes within their destinies anyway, they have such feelings.

And within those feelings, because their characters are like that, the feelings too will be in that direction, and they will have desires and wishes in that way. They do not easily speak like the common people. Yes. When the time comes, regarding the children to be given to them, they pray. Within that prayer, Allah Almighty grants them a good child. So Zechariah, every time he entered Mary's (?), seeing various foods before Mary, and realising that they were sent from Allah, prays there.

Well, can there be food not sent by Allah? There can. From whom does it come? The jinn too. They bring the same thing. The jinn. Well, like one of Solomon's (?) jinn saying: I will bring your throne before you rise to your feet. Yes, the jinn too have such skills. In this situation, after making quite sure, Zechariah prays. My Lord, grant me from Yourself good offspring. Surely You are the One who truly hears prayers, he says. The One who truly hears. And the beauty of prayer is, when you pray, see, he does not say: surely You will accept my prayer. What does he say? Surely You are the One who truly hears prayers.

Of course, Allah, who hears and knows everything; he leaves everything to Him again. Zechariah asking Allah for a child is not to satisfy his own nafs and to boast of his lineage with it.

Zechariah is an old man; after himself, the religion of Islam, or rather the religion of Islam, of course, everything is upon Islam. Even if it is not in the book, in their house there are the Psalms or the Torah. Well, because after Zechariah (peace be upon him), Jesus (?). In this situation, they, for a child from their own lineage too to help Allah's religion, pray for it.

Not to satisfy his own nafs.

Not to continue his own lineage either, it says. Not to continue his own lineage either. His only aim is that a person who will be a servant of Allah and convey Allah's commands to people being from his own loins, he gains even greater nearness to Allah; that is what it is for. Just as Abraham too prays to Allah Almighty: He made imams from his lineage, it says. Isn't that so? Imam. How beautiful. The prophets all come from his lineage. Yes.

For this reason, for those who long for Allah, who from the heart surrender to Allah, the aim is not wealth, property, children and love of children, not that. Their only wish is to serve Allah and, for Allah, calling Allah's servants to guidance, to have them guided for Allah. That is their whole aim.

Now, we, in our helplessness, with the same feelings, serve people. The same feeling. The aim is not a passion for being the head. Because in a hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says: whoever falls into the passion of being head loses his head. So what is our aim? Our aim, since our Lord brought us into the world: without proving what kind of person we are, what kind of person you are, did you think you would die? According to that verse. Believing generations who will keep Allah's religion standing, and until the Day of Judgement, with no polytheist, no created being able to put out Allah's light, who will stand against those polytheists like (?); we wish for them to come, and we wish those people to know the religion of Islam well, and against these polytheists, the enemies of religion, who have turned their backs on Allah, people who have deified their nafs, in the ranks of a divine light, to form a front against them, we want the generations coming after us to tell of the religion of Islam.

Since our Lord's will is that until the Day of Judgement people, of the religion of Islam, shine its light, that those who will shine that light, well, come from our own loins surely brings us honour too, well, in Allah's sight. So in this situation each of us, since we wish that people who can keep the religion of Islam standing until the Day of Judgement and who will leave its glory to the generations after us as a trust, as an inheritance, be on the earth, we try to explain the religion of Islam to people in the best way.

So Zechariah too, in this respect, people who will keep Allah's religion standing, who will tell future generations about Allah, from his own lineage too; wanting them to come is of course a prayer. Because all people are in helplessness. In this situation, each of us is in need of Allah. Even a prophet is in need of Allah. Because Allah is the One who gives life to all He creates. No one can use Allah's authority and give life to anyone. Giving life belongs to Allah alone. But Allah Almighty raising people among themselves and sending them to people as scholars does not mean giving life to those people. It is Allah Almighty, by His mercy, raising that person, and those scholars being sent to Allah's servants as servants.

Yes, scholars are, in a way, people's servants of knowledge. Because Allah Almighty, for something He did not make known to people, will not call anyone to account. In this situation, if Ahmet trains Mehmet, it is not that person saying: I am giving you knowledge; it is that person, by his own (?), with compassion, with mercy from his Lord, reaching a certain level and serving people as a scholar; because he serves those people themselves, since it is Allah's word, (?) respecting the scholar, and also by that person telling of Allah, his exaltedness in Allah's sight comes about, so that although the scholar serves, in return this service is not like other services. It is the most exalted of services.

In this situation the Messenger of Allah says: scholars are my heirs. For this reason Allah Almighty too states their condition in the verse like this: the passing of your scholars to the hereafter is like the sun going and darkness coming, it says.

What did we say? Zechariah, turning back to Allah, turning his face to Allah alone: O my Lord, You are the One who truly hears prayers. That is, You, besides whom no one knows who will do what and say what where, and who, knowing the state of all You created, create events according to their desires and wishes, and make people live their destinies. So it is in my destiny too to pray to You thus, responding to You, since You put it into my mind and had me plead to Your essence for a child who will serve You. O my Allah, You are the One who truly knows everything, he says. Just as I said earlier, within their destinies.

Now, when I was first growing spiritually, I am growing spiritually. I am constantly meeting with my Lord, but I have no outward knowledge, no outward knowledge, I don't know what is what, but verses appear in the heart, the characters high. One day, again in the presence of (?), because I loved Him very much, I said to Allah Almighty: O my Lord. I love You very much, but I fear I will make a mistake, I said. Perhaps what I saw is not Allah. Because I have no knowledge. Anyway, no one can take on Allah's guise. Let me not see You again, I said, my Allah. So it was, no more. It went away, but knowledge comes, inspiration comes, no image.

Many years passed from there. I went to Umrah a few times and came back, went to Mecca and came back. Now, I am telling this in relation to this here, to that there. What did we say? So it is in my destiny too to pray to You thus, responding to You, since You put it into my mind; I am opening this part up now. I am opening it up through myself. Anyway, unless these are lived, they cannot be told.

We went to Umrah a few times and came back. Again one day I am at Umrah.

It came to my mind. This is the place where prayers are accepted. I said in prayer; I am both doing tawaf, and I was moved and am weeping. I said: in the period of ignorance I said such and such a thing. I was ignorant then, I said. I had no knowledge, I didn't know, I said it. You know my heart better than I do. Because I loved You so much, I said it so as not to make a mistake. I am going round doing tawaf, reciting, and speaking with my Lord from my heart. Forgive me, I said. Forgive me. Again I said: grant me to see You.

That's all, I said. I came here and went. It never occurred to me to make such a prayer, I said. So, I said, the time has now come, since You put such a prayer into my mind, O my Lord, I said. Accept this prayer of mine here.

I will not tell you the events that followed. Because you cannot bear it. You cannot bear that.

Yes. Because people, in this way, with some secrets being closed, the ruling of the Sharia will continue until the Day of Judgement. The Prophet too, after he came down from the Miraj, the secrets there, some say twenty (?), some say twenty thousand (?). By telling these, and they too by keeping these secrets, until the Day of Judgement the Sharia ruling of the religion of Islam will continue. The results of the feelings there are in the verses anyway. Those who do not live these cannot grasp or know the meanings of these verses. They only say, by the outward word, he said this, he said that. They talk that way and go on.

Prayer is a person knowing his helplessness before Allah Almighty and asking Allah for what he wishes. How beautiful, of course.

There is no rule that every prayer made will necessarily be answered in this world. Allah loves His servants very much. And a person's asking from Allah never ends. But since a person does not know the unseen, something not for his good, but which in what he wants he sees as good, when he pleads for it to Allah, and if such a thing he wants is not in (?), Allah does not give it to him in this world.

And if he is patient with this, in the hereafter its reward will come before him.

But if a person is patient about the wish Allah did not give him, in the hereafter realm he sees before him many rewards for deeds he did not do. And he asks Allah: O Lord, I did not do these good deeds, are they mine, he says. And Allah Almighty says: O My servant, you prayed to Me for such and such; since it would not be for your good, and since your wish and desire was outside your destiny, We did not give it to you in the worldly realm. And since you showed patience with this wish not being fulfilled, today these rewards are the reward of the patience you showed and of your surrender to your Lord, He says.

How beautiful; see, what does the verse say: people pray and say, it says, my prayer was not accepted, it says, because people are very hasty, it says. Yes. So there is no prayer that is not accepted; if it is not in destiny, Allah surely prepares many rewards for him in the hereafter for his patience; for this reason a person should constantly pray to Allah, make known his helplessness, and present his needs. Such a question may come to our minds.

Doesn't Allah know our state, that He makes us pray? Doesn't He know our state? He knows. What does the verse say? There is not a single living being to come until the Day of Judgement that We do not know what it will not do. There are some meanings here; if we haven't opened them up here, the second meaning too I will tell you, another meaning. Surely Allah knows our state, but a person opening his palms, turning his face to his Lord and returning to Him pleases Allah very much. So if Allah likes prayer, would I, to win what He likes, hold back from praying to Him? Although my Lord knows my state, would I not turn my face to Him and surrender?

That is why Allah commands: ask, ask. Now, in the second meaning it is like this. There are some people, it says, who because of remembering Allah, it says, cannot present their own desire and wish to their Lord, it says. Because of remembering Allah. We lived these too. Our Lord made us live them. Once, I say: my remembering Allah with every breath, even if it is for my own good, is more virtuous than asking for my worldly benefit; saying this,

saying my Lord is aware of my state, because of that remembrance our own desire and wish we could not ask for. And the verse is like this too. What does it say? There are such servants of Mine, it says, that from remembering Me they cannot respond to Me, that is, cannot pray, it says. And We grant him the most beautiful of what he would ask, it says.

Unless these are climbed step by step, you cannot be aware of them, and these verses too you cannot know.

Some people say: I prayed, my prayer was not accepted. They accuse Allah of stinginess. Whereas Allah is rich. Ask, He commands. Allah created the worlds for people. (?) is one of the worlds. For this reason, since there is haste in man's creation, he wants Allah to give to him immediately when he asks from Allah. Allah surely gives immediately too. But if a person knows how to be patient, and Allah ties the thing He will give to causes, ties it to causes, and gives it to the person over time, wouldn't that be better? Now, we lived this too. How did we live it? We used to say: my Allah, those who do not remember You, who say I am a Muslim yet turn their backs on You, place, home, wealth, property, they have plenty. Allah, I say, they have even more.

Not because our eyes are on them. Please, I used to say. If only we had a span of land in the world to remember You. If only we had a span of land. To remember You there, I used to say. There.

In time, He would say. Look, associations were founded. Places were prepared. Let me tell you, through the internet, broadcasts to the world began. Patience, patience, patience. Allah ties everything to causes. If He wished He would have given it at that moment too, but patience. We knew that everything has its time. Allah ties everything to causes. Within those causes events appear. So by trusting Allah in everything and by being patient, a person attains his desire and wish, his aim, if it is in his destiny. Yes. Whatever I have asked of my Lord until now, He has given me.

I don't remember Him not giving me what I wanted.

I don't remember that.

Perhaps if I said, my Lord, a ladder to the moon, He would give that too.

But everything must be sound reason. Sound reason. So ask from Allah, pray, but do not be hasty. If it is in your destiny, our Lord will grant it to you. If it is not in your destiny, be patient still. In our hereafter realm it will appear before you as if you had done good deeds in the world. It will appear before you as a reward.

A person learns patience, he himself learns to strive; I say these because I have lived them. Because we lived it, against that wish of ours. I want, but, I say let me have a place, but I don't say: my Allah, ready-made, plop, drop it on me right away. I strive toward it. Effort; I work to make such a place. Since He brought me into the world, sustained me in the world with eating and drinking, since I will work, He will give me the return of my work; then I will learn patience, learn to work, learn effort, so that if it is in my destiny, I may reach it. Now we are writing the result of these feelings here anyway.

What do we say? For this reason, since there is haste in man's creation, he wants that when I ask from Allah, Allah gives to me immediately. Wouldn't it be better for Allah to tie it to causes and give it to the person over time? Yes. A person learns patience. He himself learns to strive. He learns to resist every kind of hardship that comes from life. Otherwise he becomes like a child fed ready-made; for this reason Allah has tied everything to causes, we said. We didn't open it up much. We finished with such sentences. Yes. We will work, we will not give up. Working toward our desires and wishes, struggling within our own will, we will go on. But this struggle is not, saying I will do that good deed no matter what, by setting eyes on the forbidden or such, not by trampling on this or that person's rights, well.

What will we do? Earning from the lawful within Allah's verses, from our Lord, to exalt our Lord's religion and, by remembering Him on earth, to show people Allah's way, wishing for a place for that. What a beautiful thing. Yes. What does Allah Almighty say in His verse anyway? Among you, it says, on earth, let there be those who will tell the truth, it says. Yes.