Al-Baqarah 45: And request help from Allah with patience and prayers. Indeed, the prayer (Salah) feels like a burden, but not for the sincere servants of Allah.

We come to verse 45. Seek help through prayer and patience. Prayer is indeed hard, but not for those who fear, He says. How beautifully Allah Almighty puts it. Truly, you who want to pray: seek help through prayer and patience, seek help. Now pay attention. At prayer time Satan puts a heaviness on people. That prayer feels so heavy to him, and Satan tempts him too. There's still time, you'll pray. There's still time, you'll pray. he says, and makes you delay the prayer, he says. If you try to get up for prayer, he at once sends a two-legged one of his kind, he says. Suddenly, truly, bang, someone walks in.

You were about to pray, and he came. He'll hold you back. You see. And if he doesn't succeed in that either, he says, if you stand for prayer, I tell you: pray quickly, pray quickly, he says. And you, he says, just as a hen or a rooster picks up its feed from the ground, so, he says, you'll peck up the feed. In the prayer you perform, he says, I'll make you frown, he says. How beautifully He puts it. So what does Allah Almighty say? When praying, He says. Prayer, prayer is indeed hard, but not for those who fear. Who are those who fear? Those who have risen to the nafs al-mutmainna. Those who perform the prayer there (?).

The prayer.

Yes.

A person who has not reached maturity. Though his nafs longs for every kind of wicked path, toward Allah Almighty he shows weariness in worship.

His nafs has not matured.

Say drink, and he runs. Say gambling, and he runs there too. Say lust, and he runs there too. He can't hold himself back. For a worldly gain worth ten pennies, in front of people he turns ten somersaults. He does these things gladly. He lies for his own whims.

For his pride and arrogance, for glory and fame, he talks to people about himself for hours. But when getting up for prayer, in a prayer of three or five minutes, he is lazy. Because, since the nafs has not matured, on the path of Allah it does not want to bow even an ant's height. That's the nafs. Always this nafs, always this nafs. We will reform the nafs. With what? With Allah's verses. And, from our Lord, by becoming servants to our Lord, seeing those evils in our nafs and casting them out of our nafs. Then, consider our heart a bucket. A bucket. Inside this bucket: discord, wickedness, lies, it's full of every kind of affliction.

Now, consider this, this bucket, as water. That is, murky water, murky water. That's the bucket. You pray. Into that bucket (?). again, throw in mercury, heavier than water. Throw in a stone. As good deeds. Throw it in.

Let's say: leave the stone and throw in the mercury. With the good deeds you do, those evils go away. Since mercury is heavy, it starts filling the bucket. What happens? The water overflows. Its overflowing is the evils leaving the heart. Then, when you begin to be governed by the verses, you see that your heart is illuminated. Mercury is a shiny substance. It gives light to your heart. The substance is lit up. He looks at himself and says: how many evils I have! What are they? There's lying, fraud, pride, arrogance, love of fame, gossip, backbiting. There's plenty, I mean. There is. So what does prayer do? Each time you pray, the unfolding of the mind, and seeing the flaw in your own nafs and struggling with it, that is the mercury you throw into the bucket, making the filth inside overflow and casting out the nafs's bad states.

So, in this way, by reforming his nafs, that person turns to prayer with greater humility, and since they enter among those who know their Lord better and fear Allah more, for asking their Lord's pardon and forgiveness and laying their state before their Lord, they eagerly await the time. In that prayer he stands face to face with his Lord and prays like that. So, let me heed that middle prayer. The middle prayer. Yes. As if he had given all his time to worship, as if there were a great mountain and he were trapped under it, such a state arises. He drifts away from worship. Who is this? One who is at the stage of the nafs al-ammara.

When prayer time comes, it's as if Mount Uhud is on that person's back. That heavy. It weighs on him. It wearies him. And he drifts away from prayer. Yes. Muhsin Paşa has written (?). The archives are limited to 100-megabyte videos. That's why we can't upload the talks in full. Because one talk is 260 megabytes in size. Inshallah, we will soon set up our own server. Then you will be able to watch the talks in full. Setting up a system with a video archive on our own server costs at least 200 euros a month. If you add the live broadcast to this too, the monthly cost can approach 300 euros. Be patient a little longer. We will try to set something up cheaply.

he says. Yes, these videos of ours, I mean the servers, these 260 MB-sized things, the MBs, are hosted via America. Hosted in America. These are very expensive; the archives are stored there. Now our brother Muhsin Paşa is having a house built in Germany. Its ground floor, inshallah, a hall for talks, and for visiting guests a guest area; Muhsin Paşa is having it built. There we will gather our own archives. So be a little more patient, he says.

We use our own means. We don't have much income. We never introduced or advertised ourselves to people before either. So, respecting right and law, within our own means, without taking help from anyone, we try to carry on our work. We try to help Allah's servants. Hodja, why don't you accept help? Look, let me tell you why. Because all the organisations that are set up take these donations, take donations, and play crooked tricks, we said: let's keep clear of them. Someone gives help here, and they'd say: see, another swindler has turned up.

That's why we don't ask for help. We try to run these within our own means. Will you help? A mosque is going to be built there, right across from my house. A mosque. I will let you know that bank's phone number and its whatsit. I'll give you the account number. You're not obliged. (?) Five lira or ten lira, as you wish. Or 50 lira; you take it, deposit it, and make a contribution to the mosque.

Allah's house (?), those who have great ranks in the hereafter believe, He says. Well Hodja, how do we know this account number for a mosque isn't yours? Then don't, then don't, don't do that either. If you think that way, don't do that either.

But if you look into it, you'll find out. Right now it's still a plan; when it is put into practice, you'll look and help accordingly.

Isn't that so? Derviş. It is.

This heavy prayer: the people who find it heavy, or worship: before endless stretches of time they keep away, or it brings weariness. They imagine it so: worship will never end. It always comes before him in a row like prayer beads, and in that time he is crushed under it. That's why he tries to keep away from it. Well, if you keep away, how far will you run? What does your Owner tell you? Now, a factory manager or factory owner sends you somewhere: go there, he says. And on the way there you'll stop here, here, here and here, he says. On that road you are under observation by a camera. What you do is visible. If you don't stop at the places the factory owner named but go directly, go the way your own nafs desires, when you return to that factory they'll finish you off too.

So worldly life is a road we travel within our own nafs, our will, a road. With our return, according to the verse that says every soul shall taste death and your return is to your Lord, there our reckoning comes back too.

Yes, how far will we run? We can't run. So then, by following Satan's steps, with our nafs, let us not bring (?) into prayer and leave prayer.

Yes. Yes, if his mind overcomes his nafs and he sets out to stand for prayer, the accursed (?) steps in. A little more (?), you'll pray, he says; and if that fails, he puts some obstacles before you to keep you from prayer. So Allah Almighty, knowing these situations, what these people will go through: through prayer and persevering in it patiently, asking Allah for help, do not leave the right path, He commands. What will you say? My Allah, by reciting the testimony of faith I became a Muslim. I am a Muslim. I know that there is no god but You. No god. But I cannot purify my nafs. My Allah, give me strength. I can't get up for prayer.

My Allah, Satan and my nafs deceive me. It deceives the world. Saying later, later, later, I keep stalling. And every passing moment goes against me. My Lord, give me strength. I want to be on Your path. The moment you have this feeling, just as they give a sick person medicine against the illness and that medicine kills the germs and gives the person strength, so you too are cleansed of your nafs and begin to overcome your nafs with the power of your mind. At the very least you'll have taken a step toward praying.

In worldly life, do not lose heart over the hardships you will face either; in worldly life, be patient with afflictions; with every kind of trial you will be tested. Taking refuge in your Lord, asking Him for help, submit to your Lord, we say. Prayer, only for those who fear, it is not heavy for them. To people who have reformed their nafs, who have given up the nafs's desires and wishes for their Lord's sake and know their Lord with certainty, prayer is not heavy. One day our mother Hazrat (?) said to the Prophet: O Messenger of Allah, Allah Almighty has forgiven your past and future sins, so why do you worship so much? To which the Prophet answered: O Aisha, should I not be a servant who worships my Lord much?

I said Hazrat Amina. Hazrat Amina is his mother. Yes. Our mother Hazrat Aisha; we made a mistake there. We said Hazrat Amina; at that moment my words came out that way, but now I remember what I said. Our mother Hazrat Aisha is his wife, Hazrat Amina his mother. He was small anyway. His mother passed away. Abu Talib raised him. Yes. People whose faith is strong; before reading this, I repeat: where we said Hazrat Amina, we correct that. Hazrat Aisha (?) said it. Not Hazrat Amina. Because we speak freely, with some names mistakes can happen. It would be good if you could point it out in such cases.

Yes. They are words that come out of our mouth in the moment.

People whose faith is strong, who have reformed their nafs, who have gained nearness to Allah Almighty, who have tasted the state of the middle prayer, when this prayer time comes, perform it and prepare for the next prayer time. To these, prayer is not heavy.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) sees great thrones during the Mi'raj. In the highest Paradise.

He asks the companion beside him: Which prophets do these thrones belong to? O Messenger of Allah, these thrones are not the prophets'. They are the thrones of three groups of people from your ummah, he says. Who are they? Those who, when one prayer ends, prepare for the next prayer. Those who go about in ablution, summer and winter, hot or cold. In ablution. If the other one comes to mind, I'll tell you. Inshallah. There is a third one too. Yes.