Hud 62: They said, “Oh Shelah! Before this, you were a promising one. (Now) you are preventing us from worshipping the ones that our fathers have been worshipping? Verily, we are in doubt about what you are calling us to (worship).”

Surah Hud, verse 62 is where we stopped. Before moving on to the verse, if you have questions, we will answer your questions.

Surah Hud, verse 62: They said: O Salih, before this you were someone hopes were placed in; now are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped?

Are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped?

Let's read you a verse.

We have read verse 172 of Surah Al-A'raf to you many times.

What does it say? "Lest you say on the Day of Resurrection: we were unaware of this" — He took the offspring that would emerge from the children of Adam as witnesses over themselves. And He said: We are your Lord, I am your Lord. And they said: Yes, we bear witness to this. We have gone over this a lot. Now, related to this verse, verse 173. Related to this verse. What does it say? Now: "Are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped?" it says. Verse 173 speaks of this.

"Or: our fathers associated partners with Allah before." That is, in the world. In the world our fathers, our ancestors before us, our ancestors — first our fathers associated partners with Allah. "And we were a generation that came after them." That is, on the Day of Resurrection, when Allah Almighty calls them to account, what will they say now? What do they say to Allah Almighty? "Or: our fathers associated partners with Allah before. And we were a generation that came after them. We followed in their footsteps. Will You destroy us because of those who did falsehood?" Because of those who did falsehood.

"We had followed in their footsteps. Now will You destroy us?" "So that you would not say this, We did so," He says. That is: at the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm We made a covenant with your spirits. We made a covenant with your spirits. And We gave you your desires, (?), your aims as your destiny. In the world, if you are a non-Muslim, you will follow his trail anyway. If you made a good covenant, you will return to your origin. To your mind. So in the hereafter you won't be able to say this. "In the world I went the way I did because of my ancestors. Will You destroy me because of those who did falsehood?" — so that you would not say this, We did so.

What did We do? With you, in the realm of spirits, by saying "I am your Lord", We made a covenant, you say. There is no (?) escape.

This is Allah's word.

Now: "Are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped?" Yes. "Truly we are in serious doubt about what he calls us to, to servanthood of Him," it says. Yes. Of course you'll be in doubt. Because your covenant there has been placed in you as character traits. It has become your desire and wish, your aim. Here too that desire and wish, that aim, will come to light. If you are (?) here, (?); if grateful, grateful — you will prove yourself.

Doesn't Allah Almighty say this in a verse? "Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are?" He says. Yes.

To the prophet Salih, his people said: O Salih, before this you were someone hopes were placed in. Salih came from a well-off family; as a trustworthy person he was a prophet regarded so among people. When prophethood came to him, he began to carry out the duty. This time they shun him. They even attempt to kill him. From killing him, though, because they fear Salih's kin, they hold back.

The prophet Salih is a prophet who, among his people, by his mind and character had won his people's respect. But people who do not want to believe in Allah and the hereafter, in the face of the Truth, not using their minds, with the feelings of the nafs, wiping out the whole past in an instant, can accuse people with (?) and also raise objections.

For so long, for his mind and ability, held up among people as an example was the prophet Salih; as soon as prophethood comes, all the past is wiped out, and man, with the rebellious spirit he showed Allah Almighty in the realm of the hereafter, in the world too, with that same rebellion, wipes out all past kindnesses and starts insulting. In fact the insult is, as it were, not at Salih; since they point to not acknowledging Allah, their rebellion is against Allah. Against Allah. Now pay attention to people.

I go around with so-and-so.

So-and-so has an enemy too. Who is this? Ahmet, Mehmet. I go around with that so-and-so. When I go around with him, he sees me as an enemy too.

When the prophets too introduced Allah to people, in fact the one who (?) the prophet (?) Allah. Because until now you loved me — why don't you love me now?

So it means that, in return for my loving Allah and taking my place beside Him, because you are Allah's enemy, you become my enemy too. That is why they go as far as killing the prophets. They go as far as driving them from their homelands.

So the people of the prophet Salih too, to the prophet Salih: O Salih, before this you were someone hoped for. That is, "we (?) you as a leader over us," they say. You were someone hoped for.

That is, we saw you as someone among us who might perhaps become our chief. "But now we see you as one of the liars" — saying this, all at once, in the face of the truth, wiping out the prophet Salih's past, they arrived at not believing in him. Yes.

Whatever is in a person's character, that is what he will live.

His people to the prophet Salih: O Salih, are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped? Treating so many of our idols as nothing, do you stand in the way of us following our fathers' path? Setting so many people against you, alone seeing what we do as bad, do you want to make us follow what you believe in? they say. Their situation, they would say, is exactly my situation today. Exactly my situation. "How so, Hodja?" You see this book.

When they rendered this book in translation, they rendered it wrongly. It has been rendered wrongly. They have ascribed attributes to Allah.

In this case, when we too explain to these Muslims, saying "who are you, what are you, until now we have come this way, and from now on you'll bring something new?", they stand up against the truth.

Allah has them slap themselves.

When we go and talk, "Allah increases a person's disbelief," he says. Allah does not increase a person's disbelief. Man increases his own disbelief. Allah does not take away man's partial will. He picks up the translation and reads. In the translation it says: through what they earn, their own disbelief they increase. It says exactly my words. "Ha," he says, "(?) it has my highest respect." The footnote. If the footnote is like this, if you say man increases his own disbelief, and here it says Allah increases man's disbelief, you — serving what kind of reason? — the contradiction between the two: the footnote, you say, has my highest respect, but this is how it is, (?) the Arabic, you try to prove it this way.

Like this. Gentlemen, Muslims, I am addressing you. Since the founding of the Republic, the non-Muslims' (?) — by covering up Surah Al-A'raf's verse 172, saying that if verse 172 were opened up it would lead to fatalism, those who label a person a Mu'tazilite, who label a person a Mu'tazilite. What is a Mu'tazilite? Those who dive deep into religion and go to disbelief, they say. Covering this up, Allah Almighty's partial will over people, His will, His universal will, and that people, with partial will, with the universal will, made a covenant — by removing this, having Allah Almighty use His own will over man, and sometimes having man use his own will for Allah — in this way, as they pleased, that verse 172, by removing it, the religion of Islam they drove toward degeneration.

When we try to open this up, there's no way they'll accept it. Because they have set up the rules. "If you step outside this rule, you can't become a professor," they said. Those are their rules. In this case, with an eye to becoming professors, with that intention, that title, they accepted these things this way.

Why did they ascribe attributes to Allah Almighty like this?

Just as it was inserted into the Gospel, they could not insert it into the Quran. By covering the verses with ash, they rendered their own ideology, wrongly, wrongly, saying "the Arabic comes out like this". In this way they went on ascribing attributes to Allah. Why did they do this? So that non-Muslims, researching Islam, the true religion, would not become Muslim, they brought the religion of Islam to a state worse than inserting into the Gospel. With their translations, their translations — not the verses — even, may Allah protect us, by rendering the verses — they rendered the verses that way.

They brought it to a state worse than inserting into the Gospel. The reason: when someone who is Christian researches in order to become Muslim, he will see that Allah puts whom He wills into Paradise and whom He wills into Hell. He'll see that Allah created humans and jinn for Hell. He'll see that Allah increases man's disbelief. At least in the Gospel there is no such thing, so he'll try to continue his own religion.

Gentlemen, we have been lulled to sleep since the founding of the Republic. They have pushed the religion of Islam into (?). And we are shouting now; look, like the prophet Salih, I too am left alone. Here is the proof, here are the verses, here is Islam and your minds. Your minds — "I will call you to account because you did not use your minds," He says. If I were wrong, the people in the guidance department, the Diyanet itself, the people there would be obliged to make me Muslim, to turn me to Islam, if I'm speaking wrongly. If I'm speaking rightly, to this book they must conform. To this book I have opened they must conform.

I've finished 95% of it. Why isn't it 100%? Those with two meanings — (?) sitting down, in a better way, those with two meanings too, together with their fine knowledge, a very fine Islamic book we could write. We could write a Quran translation. Very good.

The work is done. The origin is here.

Seek the truth, find it. Find one mistake. Find one mistake. (?) — all these books I'll gather up and leave here too. He shows me this as wrong — listen carefully. What he showed as wrong: the state of the hypocrites is the likeness of one who kindles, in a dark night, a fire. The hypocrites will kindle fire. These are people who don't know what this means. Those who don't know what these verses mean. The state of the hypocrites is the likeness of one who kindles a fire in a dark night. When the fire lights up its surroundings, Allah at once takes away their light and leaves them in darkness.

You who pass for a scholar, who say "I did a doctorate": Allah the Quran to the worlds sent. This Quran that came to these worlds — would Allah extinguish their light at all? Can a hypocrite kindle a fire in a dark night? The fire is the Quran, the Quran. That which will light the way in a dark night. Allah Almighty is drawing a simile for the Quran. And He says: in a dark night people have come into the world; so that they cannot see ahead, they are in that much darkness. Because He gave people only a part of the mind. They needed a leader, a guide. And the leader and guide is the Quran. So then, not "kindles" — the likeness of a fire burning in a dark night.

Look, this is the correction. It is the likeness of a fire burning in a dark night. When the fire lights up its surroundings, those who put out the fire, themselves in darkness they leave. They no longer see. The person who showed me this verse as wrong — of the people on duty there, you think about their knowledge of the Quran. I'm not saying anything more. So, these superstitions inserted into the Quran since the founding of the Republic, these words ascribing attributes to Allah — if, to remove them, Allah has raised a man and wants this knowledge explained to you too, just as these prophets were left alone among their people — behind me only Allah, and I struggle for Islam.

I struggle to spread the truth, to remove superstitions. I try to make the truth heard by all Muslims. And now I to you, further —

His people to the prophet Salih: O Salih, are you stopping us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped? it says. Look, in verse 173 — how beautifully the verses all support each other — on the Day of Resurrection, in the hereafter, when Eleysallahu bi ahkemi'l-hakimin, the judge of judges, at the great tribunal calls people to account, these people: "We saw our fathers, our ancestors (?); we followed them; now, because we followed them, will You destroy us?" — so that you would not say this, it says, so that you would not say this, We with you — in verse 172 — made a covenant in the realm of spirits, it says.

Your will, your own partial will, your desire and wish, your aim, as destiny for you We wrote. "You had the script written here; as an actor you are playing it in the world," it says. What does this have to do with fatalism? As I understand it, a fatalist is a person who says: Allah created me like this, wrote this on my forehead, I am like this — and pins all he does on Allah, ties his destiny to Him — like the fatalism of man, this is how it's completed. Otherwise, in explaining the part and the whole, in the part's pleasure and wish, its aim, being written as its destiny — here, where is there fatalism at all?

What is partial will? It is the decisions people make with their own will. Doesn't Allah Almighty say: Today, without any wrong done to anyone, without injustice done, all of what you earned, as two hands — what your two hands earned, in full, will be given to you. So how will I earn this? By using my will, I will use it by making judgements. I will be called to account for what I did. Here, about Allah Almighty's ruling over me, His ruling in throwing me into Hell by His will —

by writing it this way, you make even the Christian world laugh at you. Yes. Even a Christian wouldn't write this in his book.

Do you know what a Christian writes in his book? He writes words that caress their nafs. That caress their nafs, as they see fit. (?) he does not tie Allah's will to the servant and slander Allah. If you're not slandering, then what are you doing to Allah? Yes. Is there no one who hears this voice of mine? Didn't you make it heard? With witnesses. But for those who do not want to hear: Hatemallâhu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâveh ve lehüm azâbün azîm. Those who do not want to hear have a veil over their eyes, heaviness in their ears, it says. Their hearts too are sealed. But I don't put them in the position of this verse.

But they are counterparts — in this verse they are counterparts.

Yes. "Setting so many people against you, alone seeing what we do as bad, do you want to make us follow what you believe in?" it says.

I'm not making you follow what I believe either.

I am saving Allah from being described with attributes. I am trying to save Him. Since we know Allah as free from deficient attributes, so that no one makes any (?) against Him, I try to explain the verses to you.

Yes.

"Truly we are in serious doubt about what he calls us to, to servanthood of Him." Just as people are in doubt about what I've written. Because they have no knowledge. No knowledge of the Quran. "How do you understand that, Hodja?" How do you understand that?

How nicely it explains the word "ta ki". It says: Allah's — among them, it says — strongly expecting, strongly expecting, expecting knowingly, it says. There's no hoping in it, it says. Not hoping. "What Allah strongly expects among them" — up to here it's correct. He expected strongly. Why? According to the covenant given at the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, because He knows those among the non-Muslims who will turn back, His strongly awaiting them, and the (?) chance He gave them. That's what this is. With the demonstrative pronoun, "ta ki", it says, them — strongly awaiting — those who will turn back.

(?) says it well. And because he has no knowledge of the Quran, he says: according to the exegete's refined taste — oh, how nice — according to his refined taste, it can be so, or thus, "it is hoped that" too, or like this, he says. "You have brought it and tied it to one thing," he says.

"According to the flow of the Quran," he says, "one puts one of the meanings it can have," he says. If you knew the flow of the Quran, you would know the subtlety in that verse, and the word "ta ki" there you would grasp.

You know nothing of the verses either.

Yes.

May Allah give us a good (?).

If we pay attention to this last sentence, the words they said, "we are in doubt about what you call us to, servanthood of Him" — if we pay attention to that: since these people in the beginning denied Allah Almighty at the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm with the same feelings, these desires and wishes of theirs were written for them as destinies. Those who had their destinies worked into them as character traits at the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm, their feelings and desires from the address Elestü bi Rabbiküm in the worldly realm by voicing, they prove what kind of people they are. Yes.