An-Nur 40: Or (the feelings and acts of the infidels) resemble the deep darkness in the wide oceans, which is covered by wave after wave and by a cloud. Layers of darkness, upon darkness; if the person reaches out with his hand, he can hardly see it. If a person has not taken from Allah’s Nur (divine light), there is no share of enlightenment for that person.

Verse 40 of Surah An-Nur — they interpreted this part wrongly too. Let's see, let's read the verse that was interpreted wrongly here too.

Well, Surah An-Nur, verse 40.

We are reading the wrong one. Or the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of those disbelievers are like dense darkness in a vast sea. Correct. We write it this way too. Such a sea that wave upon wave covers it. Clouds above it. Darknesses one above another. What a beautiful example He gives of their states. If a person took out his hand and stretched it out, he could hardly even see it, it says. He could not even see it. If Allah has not given this person light — why didn't He give it? — then that person has no share in brightness, it says. As if Allah hands out light and does not give it to him. I mean, they asked the Prophet: "Whom do they call unjust?" it says.

"A father who discriminates among his children is also unjust," it says. Allah is such an Allah that if He discriminated among His servants, an attribute would be ascribed to Him. But since everyone's desire and wish, their aim, became their destiny, in that case people, through the actual deeds they themselves do, in the matter of knowing Allah or not, receive sin and reward. In fact this verse proves Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 17. What does it say there? In verse 17 — they interpreted that part wrongly too. We correct that part too. What does it say? Their state, the hypocrites', is on a dark night like one who kindles a fire, it says. Hypocrites cannot kindle a fire. On a dark night, kindling the fire belongs to Allah alone. The Book is light.

Since He knows people in the world to be in darkness, without knowledge, Allah sends the Book and the prophets before people as light and radiance. Radiance, light. Like a fire burning on a dark night. Not like a fire burning on a dark night. Rather, not like one who kindles a fire. Now he completes error upon error. His own error. When the fire lit up its surroundings, Allah immediately took away their light and left them in darknesses. Can there be such an Allah?

The whole Quran has been interpreted like this. Whereas what did we say in our translation? Their state, the hypocrites', is like a fire burning on a dark night. When the fire lit up its surroundings, those who put out the fire leave themselves in darknesses. They no longer see. So verse 40 of Surah An-Nur too is about those darknesses. Their hearts are this dark. They cannot see the truth. Where? At the address "Elestü bi Rabbiküm". There they denied Allah. In that case everyone's desire and wish was written for them as destiny and instilled in them as character. Now, as in verse 147 of Surah Ta-Ha that we read, we came into the world.

We are proving what kind of person we are. Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are? it says in the verse. Yes.

Or the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of those disbelievers are like dense darkness in a vast sea. Such a sea that wave upon wave covers it. Clouds above it. Darknesses one above another. If a person took out his hand and stretched it out, he could hardly see it. If a person has not taken from Allah's light — not "if Allah has not given His light", but if he has not taken from Allah's light — then that person has no share in brightness. Where will they take Allah's light from? At the address "Elestü bi Rabbiküm". The Prophet (peace be upon him) says this in his hadith: Allah created the souls in twilight.

He scattered something of His light upon them. Whoever took from that light found his way. Whoever could not take from that light lost his way and went astray. What was that light? I am your Lord.

In that case, since people saw Allah Almighty like their own attributes, they denied Allah, the one they themselves created — the Allah who created them — and the Lord in their imagination they waited for. So Allah Almighty, in response to their waiting for that Lord in their imagination, shows them a verse. He says: Had We willed, We would have lowered from the sky, with clouds, with angels, and made you prostrate, He says. Yes. In that case, Allah Almighty — since this world is the likeness and shadow of the Hereafter, do we see a head of state in this world? We do. The president now had his viziers, sultans had viziers — do we see them too?

We do. Well, there are also ministers — do we see them? We do. Well, if this place is the likeness of the Hereafter, in the Hereafter the Sultan of sultans is Allah Almighty? We will see Him. Well, who is His vizier? His aide, the Prophet. Who are the ministers? The other messengers, the prophets. We believed in all of them, we had faith. All of them are truth that came from Allah. So in that case, what are you denying? Yes.

Allah Almighty brings a second comparison for those who disbelieve. In this example He has given, it becomes plainly clear that Allah's verse is a miracle, and that the Quran is truth and was sent down to the worlds by Allah, who created the worlds. In this verse, while giving the disbelievers as an example, where He says "the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of those disbelievers are like dense darkness in a vast sea" — the example in that verse is also one of its miracles in our time. That in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), at a time when the bottoms of the oceans had not been descended to and explored, the verse came, tells us that the feelings of the disbelievers and the state of their hearts are like the darknesses at the bottom of the oceans.

It shows that there is a miracle in the verses of the Quran. The bottoms of the oceans are darkness kilometers deep. In that darkness there are some fish that give off light. There are fish that produce electricity, electric current. What does it say here anyway? Like dense darkness, such that — such a sea that wave upon wave covers it, clouds above it, darknesses one above another; if a person took out his hand and stretched it out, he could hardly even see it; if a person has not taken from Allah's light, then that person has no share in brightness.

He says it in the verse at the beginning: or the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of those disbelievers are like dense darkness in a vast sea, it says. What He calls a vast sea is like the darknesses at the bottom of that sea, in the oceans. And truly it is so.

Yes.

It shows that there is a miracle in the verses of the Quran. Indeed, when the seas were studied, it was found that there are dark places at the bottom of the oceans, and Allah Almighty, with His verse, likening the state of the disbelievers to these darknesses, declares to people that there is no other god besides Him and that He knows all the states of what He created. If Allah's light is not in a person and that person has moved away from Allah's light, these people's hearts are scattered and restless. It's not me saying it, this is a verse. The hearts of the disbelievers are scattered and restless, it says.

You won't find peace in a single one of them. These people — peace in each other's company — to boast to each other, as the devil's toys, drink alcohol. Drinking means you've become a man. What does he do? The devil makes him feel that pride. He will drink. What will he do? He will parade his wife around naked. Look, I'm modern, he will say. Modern lifestyle. That is, the devil's buffoons — wanting people to take an interest in them and to give themselves a sense of self — there is no unrest they would not create. And to get rid of their unrest they live in worlds of debauchery.

Yes. If Allah's light is not in this person and that person has moved away from Allah's light, these people's hearts are scattered and restless. So the feelings these scattered and restless hearts produce in people, Allah Almighty makes known to us. They have unstable, chaotic feelings. By saying "wave upon wave" for this being so, He declares that those deprived of Allah's light are in a bewildered state, unable to find their way in darknesses, that they are cowardly and hesitant in their decisions, that since they are unaware of the verses Allah has made known, they cannot see with Allah's light, and that for this reason they remain in darknesses.

For this reason they make false and wrong decisions, and with the decisions they make they themselves go astray.

If they took out their hands, in that darkness they would hardly even see their hands. So their lives, within their own will and decisions, are decisions without awareness. For this reason there is no good in what they do. They are only people who spend their lives busy correcting, through experience and effort, the mistakes they made. So if a person has not known Allah, has turned his back on Him and given his covenant as a denier, these people will never again find Allah's light. For this reason, those who are deniers and disbelievers spend their lives confused, unstable and with restless hearts, in darknesses.

Because they long for brightness, they try to describe themselves as enlightened. Today's academics, (?) many of them, say: we are enlightened people. Watch out for these people who say they are enlightened. They say: we believe in Allah. Müjdat Gezen. Yaşar Nuri, who croaked. We are enlightened people. We don't believe in Allah (?), they say. Yes. They said it, didn't they? I heard it.

They talked about this somewhere.

Yes.

For this reason Allah Almighty, in the verse about these people, says their hearts are scattered and restless. And according to this verse, so that these people can be understood better, giving this verse we have interpreted, their states — in darknesses, unable to see ahead, in a bewildered state — with examples Allah Almighty describes to us, we have said.