An-Nur 21: Oh you believers! Do not follow the steps of devil (shaytan). Whoever follows devil’s steps (should know that), he certainly orders lewdness and abomination. If Allah’s blessings and mercy were not upon you, none of you would come out clean. But Allah purifies those who desire (from Allah). Allah is Samee (All-Hearing) and Aleem (All-Knowing).

Here there is a verse that has been explained wrongly. We have written this part in green. Surah An-Nur, verse 21 — where did our Quran go? Give it to me. Not this one, it's inside.

Please put it there, I will take it.

In Surah An-Nur, verse 21, let's see what they have said. Let's look here.

O you who believe! Do not follow the footsteps of Satan. That is right. Whoever follows the footsteps of Satan, surely he commands indecency, shameful crimes and evil. That is right too. If Allah's grace and mercy were not upon you, not one of you would ever become pure. But Allah purifies whom He wills; Allah hears and knows. Now this: when it says He purifies whom He wills, Allah Almighty our (?) removes, Allah Almighty, among His servants, even if they are disbelievers, purifies whom He wills. He purifies the one who wishes it. He purifies the one who obeys Allah's command. Yes.

O you who believe, do not follow the footsteps of Satan. Whoever follows the footsteps of Satan, surely he commands indecency, shameful crimes and his evil. He commands evil. If Allah's grace and mercy were not upon you, not one of you would ever become pure. That is right. No matter how obedient we are, no matter how much we reform our nafs, we surely make mistakes.

The one whom the (?) of the worlds, who created people from His spirit, sent as a mercy to the worlds, the Prophet, is complete toward people and the worlds, but toward Allah Almighty he is lacking. Therefore: May Allah Almighty forgive your past and future sins as well. Well then, who? In the position of the Prophet (peace be upon him), who can be? No one. So man — the evils he has (?) with nafs-driven feelings — Allah Almighty, through his repentance, brings him out clean, cleans him; he is washed. What is this like? A person, dressed spotlessly, is walking along the road. On the road. You look, there is a den of vice.

Your nafs desires it, even if you don't go, even if your foot doesn't pull you there. You just look like this and pass by. An example — what is it like? Mud from around splashes onto those spotless clean clothes. Then those clothes with the mud splashed on them you give to the cleaners to have cleaned; you don't want to wear them like that. Your not wearing the garment like that means repenting of what you committed against Allah Almighty, the offence. And our Lord cleaning you. Otherwise no one at all can be cleansed. I don't know if I could explain it.

Yes.

But Allah purifies whom He wills among you. Why? Of course, if you repent, He purifies whom He wills. Allah hears and knows, it says.

O you who believe!

Do not follow the footsteps of Satan.

Because, since Satan is an enemy to people, he shows people deeds the nafs will enjoy. He drives people to shameful crimes. Adultery, gambling, alcohol, the worlds of pleasure, revelry, entertainment and dissipation he makes attractive to people. Pay attention here. People who go to those places say, I am living. (?) Yet he does not know that, in the swamp of the world, to the flower of the zaqqum tree that will grow in the middle of hell, (?) he is heading toward that swamp; he is not aware of it. Yes.

He drives people to shameful crimes. Adultery, gambling, alcohol, the worlds of pleasure, revelry, entertainment and dissipation he makes appealing to people. And people, taking this for life, follow after it. They become addicted to these evil ills. In this way people move away from Allah and are dragged into disasters. Now all the Awliya of Allah, the people of taqwa, have withdrawn into seclusion. Seclusion. What do we understand by seclusion, then? By seclusion. That we withdrew alone to one side, (?).

(?) to everyone.

But the state of the one who lives it is different. Of the one who lives it. I am here. How far from people. Is there no house in the city? There is. But we cannot get along with them. Our mind no longer takes to them. Nor do they take to us. Because when we get together, they either run down Ahmet or Mehmet, or talk of worldly affairs, or the (?), the backbiting of this one and that one they do. Well, what does that bring you? We can no longer live among people. This, this is seclusion. This is seclusion. You cannot go in among people and live. On your own, at ease. Solitude is not necessarily withdrawing somewhere.

It is living this. Once you live this, you are in seclusion.

Yes. You have understood seclusion, I suppose.

Yes.

Since Satan is an enemy to people, he always shows people evil as life. Evil. He pulls people toward dark or dead-end roads, toward a swamp. He causes people to become sinners, even to leave the religion of Islam — may Allah protect us — and become disbelievers and for that reason to be destined for hell forever. Therefore those who follow Satan's trail and fall for his temptation, who follow after him, wrong their own souls. What does that mean? They wrong their souls, become sinners, and (?) into torment.

Had Allah Almighty's grace and mercy not been upon us, no soul could ever become pure. Because Allah created people deficient and weak. Therefore, in this weakness, people cannot escape the temptation of the nafs and Satan and become complete and perfect. That is why they are faulty and sinful. Allah, who created these states this way — when people repent of the sins they wanted in their weakness and return to Allah, Allah Almighty forgives these people their sins. This is Allah's mercy and compassion upon people.

Allah, who created people in weakness, besides whom there is no other god, who created all His creatures to worship Him, has opened the doors of repentance to people; when, through the sins they have committed, people realize that they are sinners, and promise Allah Almighty never to want these sins again and repent, Allah Almighty forgives people, and we find our Lord much-forgiving. So, because of the weakness of the human nafs and man's deficient creation, since people are not free from error, because of the mistakes they commit, in Allah's sight no soul could become pure. So if people, with the mistakes they have made, to Allah, besides whom there is no other god, return, they find Allah to be upon mercy and compassion and see that their sins have been forgiven them.

In this case, those who do not return to Allah are left alone with their sins, and they forget Allah. Taking a momentary pleasure and dissipation in their lives as a gain for themselves, they move away from Allah's (?). Such people wrong their own souls. Those who, taking it for life, display their bodies, who go about naked. Those who, taking it for life, into Satan's trap have fallen, and when they deem themselves worthy of superhuman honour and glory, eat with the left hand and show people in this way: I eat with my left hand — those who show it off.

So, as the disgrace of humanity — just as they are unaware that they live like this, if only they knew that, as our Lord says in His verse, they are like the four-legged creatures roaming the earth — that they belong to the class of animals.

Those who take the world's momentary pleasure and revelry for life, exchanging it for the eternal home of bliss in the world of the hereafter, with the burdens of sin earned by their own hands, buy hell and the torment there. Those who know Allah as One, who believe in the prophets and books Allah sent, who fear Allah and do not want evil, who, for the sins they have committed, are (?) before Allah Almighty, are cleansed of the burdens of sin.

Because the Quran, the source of guidance and mercy, Allah has sent before people. Those who follow it are the ones who attain salvation. Because with the Quran He has made known to people their honour and dignity, and the ways of being a servant to Allah He has shown. What does it say in the verse? If you seek might and honour, might and honour are with Allah. Might and honour, glory and fame are not with those who fleece people with money and strip them stark naked. So in this case, those who are servants of Allah, who, with faith in Allah, believe they will be resurrected in the hereafter and called to account — because they are servants of Allah, they are cleansed of their sins and attain Paradise clean and pure.

And whoever turns his back on Allah, and the evils he did in the worldly realm, in his own self deems right, and turns their back on Allah's commands and prohibitions — they too become seekers of the place of torment they themselves desired. What an evil place of return that is. Allah wrongs no soul. Those who wrong themselves are people, in return for what their own two hands have earned. Yes.