Al-Isra 32: Do not approach adultery, because it is great shame and an evil path.

We have come to verse 32 of Surah Al-Isra. We will continue our lesson from here. In translation, Allah Almighty says: Do not approach adultery. For it is indecency and a very evil way.

Allah Almighty created man very honourable. To man, honoured above the worlds, He made known the ways to protect his honour and dignity, his chastity and virtue. So for people who behave so shamelessly, He applies a deterrent punishment. That is stoning. Its being an evil way has many meanings. In the first, in the first, a person has cast his eye on the wife of a friend he loves and he seduces her and sleeps with her, and this is truly an act unworthy of humanity. Second, a person disregards his honour and dignity and, even if it is someone else, casts his eye on his wife and sleeps with her. Third, he keeps a lover.

Fourth, a child from her, a child from that woman — if later he too has a child, the two siblings marry each other. This too is a very evil indecency. Moreover, disease arises in women. Moreover, disease arises in men, and they pass these on to each other, and in this way they have taken a very evil path. These are forbidden in the sight of Allah. People who have incurred a punishment that goes as far as being killed. Yes. As honourable as man on earth — I won't say on earth — in the universe, among the creations of Allah Almighty, no being has been created as honourable as man. For Allah has given man of His spirit and made him the one He addresses.

So man is truly very honourable, if he had known his place, man, if he had known his place in the sight of Allah. The venerable Abdulqadir Gilani says this: La mulke yevmeli — today the dominion was mine alone, he used to say, he says. Today the dominion is mine alone. And what does this indicate, he says. It indicates that Allah Almighty created every human being as vicegerent on earth, he says. Those who disregard the honour and dignity of a person created so honourable and cast their eye on his chastity and virtue have truly risked death, and are, in my view, no different from the four-legged creatures roaming the earth.

Even if a woman gives herself to a man, the man, if he guards himself from that woman and leads her to the right path, just imagine the reward he has with Allah.

Such a thing happened to me.

I was young, I was in Ankara.

In a house, a house, in the room behind me, that is, let's call it an apartment. She was trafficking women. The woman, the woman was trafficking women. I didn't know either. Later I noticed it. To that woman doing the trafficking I said: if I ever see you like this again, I said, I'll kill you.

The woman got scared.

And I left that place anyway. Years passed. I was posted to Diyarbakır. From there I came back to Ankara. We had a brother whom I loved very much, a son of ours. He has passed on to the hereafter. I was sitting with him. He had a grocery shop back then, grocers.

A woman came and kissed my hand. Allah Allah. Who are you, I said. Don't you recognize me, she said. No. It's me, from such-and-such place, she said, you lived in such-and-such place, she said. Well, she introduced herself. She had married a customs enforcement officer. She had begun to lead a very good life. And our son says: I have not seen anyone as chaste as her here. For me this is a claim. Yes. If every person behaved like this on Allah's path, the filth around would disappear. Yes. That is why a person must know his own honour and dignity, fear Allah, and be governed by Allah's commands.

My Lord raised me like this, through actual deeds. By letting events happen to me. Well, He let me go through very fine life experiences. Just as adultery toys with a person's honour and dignity, all diseases spread by this path. Just as there are many evils in adultery, its (?) worst side is that the man who commits adultery has a child by a woman he committed adultery with. Neither can he himself know it, nor can one know that the woman got this child from the man she committed adultery with. For the woman is committing adultery with others too. The child is born, grows up, and when it reaches marrying age, it may get to know the children of the adulterous man and they may marry.

In this way two siblings will have married each other. Muslims are brothers. Allah Almighty says that if there is a Muslim at one end of the world and a Muslim at the other end, both are brothers. Accordingly, the respect and attachment of brothers to brothers is not like that of blood siblings. Muslims who share the same faith, believe in that One Allah, and remember the day they will be called to account in Allah's presence on that day of reckoning, and (?) accordingly, are brothers.

Yes, these people do not approach adultery, they do not toy with the honour and dignity of their brothers. Just as they value their own chastity, they value others' chastity likewise and show respect. They see them as their brothers and protect them. Whoever protects his Muslim brother's honour with such a belief will attain Allah's mercy. Adultery leads a person to evil, to misery, and to doing away with family responsibility. The manner of destruction of many towns: because they were given over to their lusts, because they came to no longer heed Allah's commands. Satan deceives man with women.

By driving them to adultery, which Allah Almighty does not want, he drives people both to assault their brothers' honour, and he steers them to rebellion against Allah Almighty and to not heeding His commands. It is then that man becomes bewildered in the middle of the right path. Yes. He takes Satan as his spiritual guide, deifies his nafs, and in this way goes outside Allah's command over man.

Yes.