Ibrahim 7: Remember that Allah informed you, saying “if you are grateful, I will increase (My blessings) for you and if you are ungrateful, know that My punishment is severe.”

Our daughter Selin says, at verse seven of Surah Ibrahim we left off.

Surah Ibrahim, verse seven: Remember when your Lord said to you: if, it says, you give thanks, surely My blessing to you We will increase. If you give thanks.

And if you are ungrateful, without doubt My punishment is very severe. So He had announced.

Although these verses address a particular people, people need to know that the verse remains in force until the Day of Judgment — they need to know.

If a person, for what Allah has given — the blessings — does not give thanks, within the whims of his own self, against Allah Almighty he does not notice that he has fallen into rebellion.

How does this happen? If you ask — if you kept giving someone something, kept giving, and that person ate and drank, and what you gave he used in safety, and never (?) you, isn't this turning his back on the person who was generous to him? Isn't he in rebellion against him? And isn't it bearing a grudge against him in his heart? We were created in need of Allah. Whatever there is in all this creation or on earth — since Allah Almighty created man very sublime and honored above the worlds, on this earth He made man the vicegerent of the earth and placed all the blessings He created at people's command.

So if this person eats the blessing Allah gives and doesn't thank Him, of course Allah Almighty will one day call him to account for it. If you give thanks, He says, if you give thanks, I will increase My blessing for you. In another verse: Do We ever, of the one who gives thanks, the sustenance, it says, (?) — do We diminish the wealth of the one who gives thanks? it says. So these verses — what do they show us?

Do We ever diminish the wealth of the one who gives thanks? And here, His saying, if you give thanks I will surely increase My blessing — what does it show? Allah Almighty, who sent us to this world, willed His Self to be known. In the world of spirits, in the realm of Lahut, He created us and took a covenant from us. Why did He create us? He willed that our Lord be known within our own will, and for that He created us. He was an unknown treasure. Then Allah Almighty, free from deficient attributes — who appeared like His Self, that is, appeared in human form and made a covenant with people — so that, against Allah Almighty, people would not say, You should have sent us to a hidden world, there we would have worshipped You — created these worlds.

So in this world, if man knows the purpose of his creation and, for the blessings Allah Almighty has given, gives thanks — since that fits Allah Almighty's purpose in creating, Allah increases his sustenance. He multiplies his wealth. The verse says so anyway. But if one goes against Him, eats and drinks the sustenance He gives and (?) to idols, to this and that — as my lucky charm — in their pocket the bugs they carry, (?) to them, and to Allah Almighty's so many blessings turns his back; and to those who ask, is there an Allah — so they say, but maybe, I don't know, he says. Is there or isn't there, he says.

If there is a creator, He must see me. He must know my state, he says. Against those who talk like this, who don't use their minds and behave this way, Allah Almighty will surely remind him of the times he made the covenant back there, and will leave him to the eternal punishment, of which He says, My punishment is severe — the punishment of hell. May Allah protect us — protect us from such a punishment.

Moses (peace be upon him), addressing his people: remember that our Lord, to you — you give thanks. Surely I will increase the blessings for you. That is, if you give thanks, I will surely increase My blessings for you. If you are ungrateful, He made known that His punishment is without doubt very severe. Allah, who saved you from the torture and oppression at the hands of Pharaoh's dynasty, brought you safe and sound out to the Tih desert. There He fed you with manna and quail meat that came from paradise. In the Tih desert — what would there be in a desert? Neither food nor drink. Does anything grow in the desert, in the wilderness?

But they are Allah's servants; since Allah told Moses (peace be upon him), take your people and leave there, the responsibility, the obligation for these people's eating and drinking He has shouldered. When they came to the Tih desert, to Moses — from the twelve tribes, twelve people take, send them to the people of Amalek; let them report to you what is there, and enter that city — despite His saying this, of the twelve tribes' leaders, except for two, ten went to their people saying, they are very strong people, we can't grapple with them; when they said this, they went against Moses' command.

And, except for two, they also rebelled against Allah Almighty Himself. What did they say? O Moses, we can't bring ourselves to fight them. You and Allah fight. Win it. Then we'll go there, they said. It's not me saying this. The verse says it.

Upon this, Allah Almighty confined them for 40 years in that desert, the Tih desert. But He fed them and gave them drink. With quail meat and manna.

Yes. That's how ungrateful they were. Their children, together with Goliath, that is, with David, left the desert, came out and began to spread.

Allah, who saved you from the torture and oppression at the hands of Pharaoh, of the dynasty, brought you safe and sound out to the Tih desert. There He fed you with manna and quail meat that came from paradise. From there He brought you to Jerusalem. He did not withhold various blessings from you. If, in this situation, you forget the hardships, the torture and torments you went through and set out to associate partners with Allah, know that Allah's punishment is very severe.

Know that this world is a place of brief enjoyment. Because a thousand years of the hereafter and — a thousand years of this world are like one day of the hereafter. So when, according to the verse, it says this world is a place of brief enjoyment, a person who lives to 60 or 70 is living, measured by the time of the hereafter, within 1 to 1.5 hours of time. If, within this one to one and a half, deceived by this unit of time, fixing his eyes on this unit of hours, one to one and a half hours, he gathers worldly goods without asking whether halal or haram, tomorrow in the hereafter Allah Almighty, with a severe punishment, as people of hell, will leave them to that fire, to the fire — the fuel of that fire, it says, is people and stones, it says.

Yes.

But if you serve Allah and obey Him, Allah Almighty, His blessing upon you, will increase. Because Allah does not go back on His promise. Who is truer to his word than Allah? it says. No created being can be as true to its word as Allah. Why, Hodja? My characteristics. If I say it, I won't lie. When you say that. We were created deficient. Our minds are deficient. Because we make deficient decisions, we cannot be as true to our word as Allah. That's one. That's one. We were created deficient. If you had not committed errors, He says, We would destroy you and create servants who commit errors, He says.

Here too we prove that we can be true to our word again. That's two:

Allah Almighty encompasses all the worlds within His own essence and sees them. We, however, can't know what will happen a moment later. With a promise we give — whether our life lasts long enough or not — there too we'd turn out liars. Or, since as humans we were created among the forgetful, we forget and again fail to keep our word. There are many reasons for this. No one can be as true to their promise as Allah. So a promise also came from Allah Almighty. What is this promise? Whoever does not associate partners with Allah, whoever is governed by the rulings Allah sent, knows the prophets to be true.

Knows death to be true. Knows the resurrection in the hereafter to be true. Believes in Allah's angels, His books, His prophets, and avoids Allah Almighty's commands and prohibitions, I too, He says, will then admit you to My paradise, He says. I will let you live in the delights of an endless life. He asks nothing of me. Just do these, He says. Know these, He says. But if you turn your back on the blessings I have given and associate partners with Me, you follow your self. If you take Satan as guide over you and follow his path, then in the hereafter, when My mercy is cut off from you, there you will be left without anyone and alone. Then you will be left to the eternal fire of hell, He says.

Yes.

We are not without an owner. We seem to be on the loose, but there is such a yoke on our necks that we are not aware of it. Every moment of ours, in our Lord's presence, as if on film, is being recorded. Every moment, every word we speak. For example, the Kiraman Katibin on the right, the noble angel, writes your good deeds. The noble angel on the left, the Kiraman Katibin, writes your sins. When it says Fe men ya'mel miskâle zerratin hayran yerah, an atom's weight of good will be written, and an atom's weight of evil will be written too. and in the hereafter the reckoning, of which it says serîü'l-hisâb, will be seen very swiftly.

Swiftly. So, although man seems to be on the loose, if he only knew the yoke on his neck — what yoke is this? That we are under our Lord's gaze every moment, that every moment we are responsible for what we do, responsible to our owner, that tomorrow for these deeds we've done we will give account to Allah Almighty, and, when you come with a driver into My presence, He says — with the body. Then, the trusts I gave you — in which way you used them, I will call you to account for it — what trust is this? The trust of the body. Body, spirit, nafs and life (?) are separate. I call out to those today who say, I am a scholar.

Most of these: people who enter paradise with bodies. People who enter hell with bodies too. People who pose as scholars and yet, of the meaning of the verse, We create you twice and cause you to die twice, are devoid of comprehension.

Yes. So those who write rebuttals, too — today, when you come perfectly clean, they make a pool at the gate of paradise, make a lake, and there have people washed and let them in perfectly clean — such people.

Yet even in this world, whoever comes to the House of Allah for Hajj, it says, circles it, and at the Station of Abraham two rak'ahs of prayer performs and becomes a hajji — when he becomes a hajji, it says, as if newly born from his mother he becomes perfectly clean, it says. So in the hereafter, at the Great Court, the people who enter paradise stripped of their sins, perfectly clean — with the body, these poor people make a lake at the gate of paradise and wash them there.

Yes. People unaware of the verses. Because Allah, it says, does not go back on His promise; yes, with the good deeds we do, with the rulings of the sharia, with our Lord's commands, if we walk following our straight path, as far as our strength allows — Allah Almighty, beyond our strength, burdens us with nothing. As far as our strength allows, following our Lord's commands, when we act, Hodja, do we never make mistakes? We do. So when we make a mistake, the Prophet (peace be upon him) says this: when you commit a sin, immediately do a good deed; let that good deed erase that sin, he says. Plus, whoever commits a sin and knows it was a sin — since He did not create us free of error, our Lord says: repent at once.

Our Lord, who accepts repentance abundantly. What does He say? I accept repentance abundantly, He says. Why does He accept it? Because we are not free of error. Our minds didn't grasp it. We made a mistake. Or we followed our self. We made a mistake. We will refrain from this, we will repent, so that we turn to our Lord. And we will know our helplessness, so that — knowing that our owner is very powerful and that no one can oppose His command over us at the Great Court — within the quality of being servants to our Lord, we will immediately repent.

Even Jonah, on the back or in the belly of the fish, for forty days after traveling around, says exactly this: Lâ ilâhe illâ ente sübhâneke innî küntü mine'z-zâlimîn. I have wronged my self, my Allah, forgive me, he says. And He brings him out onto land. Yes. Go inside, will you. Sit there and listen.

Yes.