Al-Baqarah 80: And they said, “Aside from several limited days, there won’t ever be hellfire upon us.” Tell them, “Did you receive a word from Allah? If so, Allah does not turn away from Allah’s promise. Or are you saying things against Allah that you don’t know about?”

We are coming to the 80th verse. Those Jews said, the fire of hell will never touch us for more than a few numbered days, they said. Say. Speak. The tongue has no bone, so speak. Speak. But his honour, his dignity, his esteem and his own being an honourable being on earth — if a person remembers these, then whenever he does not keep a word of his, he must know he will fall into that disgrace. When he does not keep a word, a word of his, he must feel that disgrace on his neck . Who feels this? Honourable people feel it. Honourable people. So what are you saying? The fire of hell will never touch us for more than a few numbered days, they said.

Say to them, Allah Almighty now says, have you received a promise from Allah? If so, Allah does not go back on His promise. Or are you saying things about Allah that you cannot know? What is this, Allah does not go back on His promise? If you really are like that, if hell's fire does not touch you for more than three days, then wish for death, He says. Death. We will come to the verses later. Wish for death.

Allah Almighty is the Owner of justice. Come and say, fire will not touch me for more than a few numbered days. Do everything I do not want in the world, says Allah Almighty. Do everything I do not want. Force the limits of the laws I set and cross to the other side. Cross to the other side, too. Why is there no destruction? For the sake of the Prophet. I send you afflictions, He says. Afflictions. Then come into My presence and let us see, He says. Allah (?) His promise. Look what I will do to you, He says.

Now why does He not do it? Now I gave you this life so that you bear witness to the proof of what kind of person your given word shows you to be, He says. You will be your own witness. Through actual deeds, through the actual works you do, with your own rewards and sins you will prove what kind of person you are. That is why I gave you such a life, He says. 'If only You had taken me right there' — had I taken you, I would be blamed, He says. Why? Because what would you have said to Me then? If only You had sent me to a (?) world. You created me like Yourself. I could not know You as my Lord. That is why you would say, if You had sent me to the unseen, I would have worshipped You there, He says.

That is exactly why I created these worlds. And I sent you (?). I also made My Being known. Now you have no word to say to Me, He says. When you come there, you will have no word left to say to Me, He says. Yes.

We read the verse once more. Those Jews said, the fire of hell will never touch us for more than a few numbered days. Say to them, have you received a promise from Allah? If so, Allah does not go back on His promise. Or are you saying things about Allah that you do not know? How they make decisions by themselves! Who? The Jews. They make the decision themselves. Even though they are aware of the sins they commit, aware of them, if they had not sinned, would they say, I will not suffer the punishment of hellfire for more than three days? So he knows. How nicely proven with such words.

How they pass judgments themselves in place of Allah Almighty. Judging belongs to Allah alone. Above all, what does He say? On that day the judgment is Mine alone, He says. Which day? At that great court, when the Day of Judgment breaks, sir, when Allah Almighty calls us into His presence, on that day the judgment is Mine alone. You did away with that judgment of that day, that judging in Allah's presence, our Lord's judging. You did away with it. And the verse 'Do not speak in My presence today', sir, you pushed aside. You judged by yourself in place of Allah. You went there for three days and stayed.

You came out again and went. Here too you did as you wished. There too you will do as you wish. What a world, what a lovely world. Look at their fantasies. Yes. What does it say now? How they make decisions by themselves. Even though they are aware of the sins they commit, in place of Allah Almighty how they pass judgments. They say, hellfire will not touch us for more than a few days. Yes. O people! What kind of nafs is this, that it consents to punishment in the fire but does not give up the desires and feelings of its own nafs? What kind of nafs is this? It consents to that fire for three days, but it insists on what it said.

You are falling into a worse state than the accursed one here. Than the accursed one. What does the accursed one say? When the time comes, he says, I fear Allah. The accursed one, yet he does not give up that ego. What is his ego? I will never prostrate to Adam, he says. What does it say? When he spoke with the Prophet, Allah Almighty sends Satan to the Prophet. He says, he will ask, you will answer. If, He says, you lie, I will burn you before your enemies, He says, and scatter your ashes into the air, He says. Our Lord says. Of course. I will burn you and scatter your ashes into the air.

The accursed one, in that ego, would he burn before the enemy and rise into the air, out of his arrogance? He says to the Prophet, you ask, I will answer.

The Prophet says, who is the one you dislike most in the world? It is you, he says. Because the mercy to the worlds has come. Where do you dwell, he says. Between the fingernails of women, he says. Where do you roam, he says. I roam in the marketplace, he says. That is why the Prophet says, when you go to the market, say this. Lâ ilâhe illallahu vahdehu lâ şerîke leh, lehu'l-mülkü ve lehu'l-hamdü yuhyî ve yumît ve huve alâ külli şey'in kadîr, then do your business and leave at once, he says, if you are going there. Do not get mixed up there. Look, women do (?) to men like this. The way they talk.

And the way some of them behave. That is why he says, do not go to such places. If you have business, get it done and come straight back. Sir, after many questions he says, O Abu Murrah, come, he says, to the grave of our forefather Adam, he says, make one prostration, and I will have my Lord forgive you, he says. He says, I swear by Allah who made you the preacher of paradise and me the preacher of hell, he says, I did not prostrate to him alive, and you want me to prostrate to him dead, he says. Look at the ego that consents to enter hell, look at the ego.

And it does not consent to prostrate to our forefather Adam. That ego is what made him eternally destined for hell. Ego. These too are in that ego. I will stay for just three days. And he decides in place of Allah too. Even if I get three days of fire, I will come out, he says. Does it not prove that this person, in this state, is even lower than the accursed one, in an even more (?) place? Even the accursed one does not do what he does. The accursed one.

O people, what kind of nafs is this, that it consents to punishment in the fire, but does not give up the desires and wishes of its own nafs? Well, in worldly life, if a small splinter pricks your hand, when one cannot bear the pain, what kind of understanding is it that, consenting to hellfire, they say, more than a few days fire will not touch us, and to burning and suffering punishment in the hereafter they consent. A few days there are three thousand years here; a lifetime of fifty or sixty years here is like an hour and a half of the hereafter. In return for this hour-and-a-half life, in the hereafter he consents to three thousand years compared to worldly life.

Look at the ego in this.

May Allah protect us. This is not something the mind can accept.

Say to them, have you received a promise from Allah? They say, punishment will not touch us for more than three days, right? Say to them, have you received a promise from Allah? If so, Allah does not go back on His promise. If you have received such a promise from Allah, bring that proof, that evidence you received, and we will forgive you. If there is such evidence, Allah never goes back on His promise; as you say, more than a few days of hell's punishment will not touch you. Or are you saying things about Allah you do not know? That is, by your own reasoning, about yourselves, did you think you would make Allah Almighty accept the verdict to be given to you, and make Him, e leysallahu bi ahkemi'l-hâkimîn, give up that attribute of His?

The Judge of judges. By your own reasoning. Or, He says, are you saying something you do not know? Yes. O people! Know that all created beings are Allah's servants. All created beings. Allah does not intend injustice to His servants. But according to the verse, what you earn is the return of your two hands, with people's being created incomplete, with the aspects you do not know in Allah's sight, with incomplete judgments you make, do not blame Allah Almighty, and about His Being do not say things you do not know. Do not say them.

Whoever asks Allah Almighty for pardon and forgiveness — because Allah created us incomplete — whoever asks Allah Almighty for pardon and forgiveness, Allah Almighty's pardon is abundant, His mercy abundant; in that case there is no one He will not forgive. What does it say? The Prophet (peace be upon him): even if your sins reached the clouds in the sky, when you repent once, Allah Almighty changes them from evil into good. Because Allah Almighty created us incomplete. He created us among the forgetful, and because He created us incomplete in mind too, we make mistakes. But as long as we know our mistake and turn to Allah Almighty in repentance and seek forgiveness.

Let us know our helplessness. Knowing our Lord as Lord, let us continue our worship of Him as it should be.