Al-Baqarah 61: And at one time, you said; “Oh, Moses! We cannot bear with eating one (type of) food. Ask your Lord so that Allah may give us things grown on earth – herbs, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions.” Moses said; “Will you exchange the superior for the inferior? Then go down to the city! Certainly, there are the things you desire.” Despicableness and poverty were put upon them, and they were struck with Allah’s wrath. This is because of their denial and because they were unjustly killing Prophets. Indeed, this was because of their rebellion and their transgression.

We come to Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 61. Remember when once: O Moses! We can by no means endure one kind of food. Yes, one kind of food. I said it a moment ago, didn't I, now the verse is coming. The verse is coming. What does it say? Remember, it says — to whom? To Moses. Your people spoke like this. What did they say? O Moses, we can by no means endure one kind of food. How blessed! You lived as a captive under Pharaoh. You groaned under his oppression. You were content with a piece of dry bread he gave you, and here, as soon as you found your freedom, you couldn't endure one kind of food? And that being quail meat.

Yes. Do you see the ingratitude?

So pray to your Lord for us. Your Lord — he can't even say our Lord. If he had said our Lord, look, pay attention, if he had said our Lord, Allah Almighty would never have cursed them. He can't say our Lord. The people eternally destined for hell use the same words. What do they say? O Malik, tell your Lord to lighten the punishment on us a little. They can't say our Lord. Since Allah Almighty knows what these are, He addresses them this way. They, they, in return for the covenants they gave, since Allah Almighty is free of any deficient attribute, so that they would not say, O our Lord, we knew You, but You wronged us in this and that way.

That is impossible. So Allah Almighty, with His attribute of patience, by wrapping everything they did around their own heads as a calamity, with all kinds of, let me say, examples, makes them witnesses against themselves. What does it say now? Pray to your Lord to bring forth for us of what the earth grows, its vegetables, its squash, its garlic, its lentils, its onions, you said. You said. And Moses: that which is better — what is it? The quail meat, the manna — that which is better, do you want to exchange it for what is lower? That is, do you want to exchange it for the most common of foods?

Go down to the city; what you want is there, he said. That is, there are onions, there is garlic, whatever you want is there, he said. Humiliation and poverty were laid upon them, and they incurred a wrath from Allah. This is because they denied Allah's verses and unjustly killed the prophets, because they rebelled and went to excess, it says.

If man his nafs cannot bring to perfection, it is impossible for that person to master his nafs. Man — we said a moment ago — how will he perfect his nafs? First, his faith in Allah and his obedience will increase. So that he holds fast to what Allah says and reforms this nafs. If in a person the love of Allah is foreign, if the faith in his heart is but an atom, if he is doubtful about the hereafter, it is impossible for this person to reform his nafs. If he lies, he backbites. If he stops backbiting, he pounces on the world. Worldly desire looks beautiful to him. Satan gives him beautiful temptations.

He goes along with them. That is why man must by all means reform this nafs. If he cannot reform his nafs, he cannot master his nafs. Once the human nafs desires something and obtains it, it longs for something else and desires that. Now, imagine a nafs that has not reached perfection. Equipped with love of the world. A person with every kind of selfish behavior. This person came to own a car. He'll say, let me have a house too. He came to own a house. He'll say, let me have a summer house. He came to own a summer house. He'll say, let me have a villa in such and such a place. He came to own that villa. Let him own another mansion somewhere else.

He came to own it — let me have a yacht. That is, the nafs's work never ends, it never ends. It wants. It wants and wants. Certain events prove this to us through things that have happened. Allah Almighty gives a person all that he desires, gives, gives, gives, gives. Since that person has now attained all he desired, what he desired in his natiqa is fulfilled. When everything he desired comes under his command, he can no longer take any pleasure in life; hop, he kills himself, he dies.

These have happened, there are such people, they commit suicide and die. Because everything he desired was given to him. And within that desire he can no longer (?) anything; in that case he takes no pleasure in life, he commits suicide and dies. The Muslim is not like that. The Muslim first knows the owner of this universe, and within the owner of this universe he knows that the property and possessions given to him are a trust with him. For this reason, in handing over to the owner of property and possessions the trusts given to him, he never falls into helplessness. Even if he hesitates to hand them over, he still struggles with his own nafs, saying, this is my Lord's property, this is a blessing to me; he struggles with himself and does not fall into the state of those unbelievers.

Yes.

In this respect, among the Children of Israel, saying to Moses, tell your Lord, we can never endure one kind of food, let Him grant us of the vegetables the earth grows — their saying this shows this people's (?). Because Allah Almighty had given them all they wished. Whatever they desired, He gave. This time what does their nafs want? It wants onions, garlic, squash, vegetables. It will eat them. After eating them — please pay attention — it wants still other things. It wants to gain the world. And within the world, in order to gain the world, every kind of (?) it changes.

That is to say, is Allah only Moses's Allah? To Moses: tell your Allah, they say to him. Is He only the Allah of Moses? Allah is the Lord of all His creatures.

Yes. That Allah who saved you from Pharaoh's oppression. Who offered you the food of paradise. In the Tih, He raised it as a shade over Mount Tur. He brought you to the city of Jerusalem. Despite this, you say to Moses, tell your Lord, we want what the earth grows, onions, garlic, lentils and squash and such vegetables. Moses, free from their carnal desires and angry at them, says: do you want to exchange the lawful and pure provision Allah Almighty gave us for this lowly, rotten worldly blessing of all things? Of course. Moses lays out the calamity that will befall them. That's why he says this to them in anger.

In anger. And what does Allah Almighty say anyway? For not keeping His command, poverty and humiliation, it says, struck them. O Allah. Yes. Poverty and humiliation. Lowliness.

And in this situation, how beautifully Moses speaks. He does not go along with them. He says to them: go, what you want is in that city. If he too had gone along with them and gone to that city, the same humiliation and poverty would have touched Moses as well. And since they opposed Allah's commands, Moses stays free of them. Allah Almighty, when He sends a calamity upon a town, those in that town who obey Allah He takes out from among those who will see the calamities. Just as He saved the people of Lot, that is, his family, from that disaster. Just as He saved Salih from that disaster. Just as He saved Noah from those disasters, from those destructions.

What is it? When Allah Almighty is going to send a calamity or destruction upon a town, He takes those He loves out of there. Allah Almighty has a promise. Those whom Allah Almighty loves are safe. They are in safety. Where they are, disaster does not happen.

Yes.

That's why, what does Moses say? Go. Get away from me. Get away from me. Yes. He now knows that they have earned a beating.

They turn their backs on Allah's favor with so many blessings, follow their carnal desires and go to that city, it says. Yes.

And Allah Almighty lays upon them both poverty and humiliation, and they incur a wrath from Allah. The reason they incur this wrath is that prophets sent by Allah Almighty, such as Shuayb, Zechariah and John, were unjustly killed by them.

And because they rebelled and went to excess, a humiliation was laid upon them. That is, lowliness. So they were cursed. That is why they live in captivity and (?) among the other nations and are humiliated on earth.

Now I'm telling Osman Kuru, who asks why no calamity comes. Could there be a greater calamity than this, Osman Kuru?

Could there be a greater calamity than this? Being humiliated among all states, among the nations. Yes. A calamity every moment.

Allah Almighty has the attribute of justice. Again we are answering Osman Kuru.

If His mercy on earth is for everyone, people on earth work, earn and get somewhere, and the other lies on his back, sits there idly — would He say to the one who works: I don't love you, you turned your back on Me, you rebelled, and for your work I have no mercy for you, I will give to that idle one lying there? Would He say this? He wouldn't. You would say it, but He wouldn't. Why wouldn't He? Because Allah, eleysallâhu bi-ahkemi'l-hâkimîn, is the judge of judges. If His mercy on earth is for everyone, can the one who works and the one who doesn't ever be equal? You lie on your back on earth, as a Muslim.

Lie on your back and say, my Allah, do this like this, my Allah, do that like that, come and tie every matter to Allah. To Allah? Why did you come into the world? He too should work, strive, get somewhere, put in effort. Of course he will hit you on the head. So wake up, open your eyes. Look, what did Fatih do? He smuggled the master gunners out of Byzantium's prisons of captivity, cast cannons and tore down the walls of Byzantium, tore down the Middle Ages, opened the New Age. He worked, he worked. So now, are you working? You lie on your back, and then you go and say, why is he doing this? Ask yourself. Ask your faith.

What are we doing?

Why are we not in unity and togetherness? Why can't we rise? Why do they, ahead with weapons, strike our heads, while we groan under their works? We don't work. We don't work. We are lazy. What does Allah Almighty say in a verse? We'll get to it. Build up your world. Work hard. Build up your world. Perhaps, it says, they will fear you. You will reach salvation. Or they will envy you and become Muslims, it says. We'll get to that verse too.

After that Allah Almighty gives two or three calamities. Why doesn't He give them to them in this world?

Come right away, a verse too, there a narrow (?) — stay inside. That is, like a single-celled organism living in that single cell. Allah gives life to people through His verses. Think well. Use your mind. Yes.