Al-Furqan 18: They will say, “We exalt You above this. It does not befit us to leave you and adopt friends other than You. But You have given to them and their fathers so much provision that they became ignorant about remembering you and became a nation that deserved punishment.

Verse 18, Surah Al-Furqan: They: We declare You exalted. How beautifully they put it now. They: We declare You exalted. It does not befit us to leave You and take other friends. Those He created say this. But You gave them and their forefathers so many blessings that in the end they forgot to remember You and became a people deserving destruction, they say. Yes, those created ones.

We too are living today the conversations corresponding to this verse. In my childhood, I — I am 79 years old — (?). in my childhood our state had come out of war, there was poverty. Everyone was at their prayer, their supplication, their worship; they would reproach those who did not pray. And they would push them to pray.

Times changed in such a way — times do not change. People, on seeing money, changed so much that with carnal feelings, like animals, toward lust, toward (?), competing with one another, they came to such a state. They turned their backs on Allah. They began showing off to people with their clothes.

In this case, instead of thanking Allah, our Lord, for the abundant blessing He gave us, instead of fulfilling the duty of servitude to Him even more, on the contrary, sinking into the swamp of the world, consenting, well, to the yoke Satan puts around man's neck, following Satan's footsteps, with all sorts of intrigues, all sorts of filth, unimaginable lustful feelings, people have come to the point of drifting away from Allah. We see these things in our time. We see this situation. Allah Almighty destroyed the people of that time, some of them, some peoples. Because He sent the Prophet as a mercy to the worlds, and because the Prophet (peace be upon him) is alive, for the mercy that came to the worlds, in a time when he is alive, the destructions He removed and gave calamities instead.

Don't calamities come to us too? Just as, although in the lands of non-Muslims He gives two or three calamities a year, Allah Almighty gives them to us too.

Floods, earthquakes are slowly beginning. He gives calamities to those who turn their backs on Allah as much as they turn away. Here these calamities, to direct people to Allah, are blessings our Lord has bestowed on people. But where are those people of understanding who will understand these? What do those idols say now? We declare You exalted; it does not befit us to leave You and take other friends. But You gave them and their forefathers so many blessings that in the end they forgot to remember You and became a people deserving destruction, they said. On that Day of Reckoning, what the polytheists or unbelievers worshipped will speak thus.

O Allah, we declare You free of all deficient attributes. That is, You are free of all deficient attributes. You are complete and perfect. We, though, are helpless and in need of Your mercy. Would we leave You? Would we take friends other than You? While You are our Lord, would we abandon You, turn to the people who believe in us as God? Would we side with them? Would we turn and be with people? We too are each a helpless servant of Yours, they say. Thereupon the prophets of the people who associated partners with Allah, who will bear witness about their communities, bear witness to Allah Almighty like this.

O Allah, we too have witnessed that You gave these people and their forefathers so many blessings that, in the face of the blessings You gave these people, instead of thanking You, they went astray and denied You. Associating us too as partners with You, they became a people deserving destruction.

O Allah, You know us better than we know ourselves. We are free of what they did, free of what they associated with Your essence, they say. Yes.