Ar-Ra'd 33: The One who watches over and protects what everyone earns (is not the same as the one who cannot do this). They have associated partners with Allah. Say; “Name them. Or are you proclaiming something that Allah cannot know about on earth? Or are you talking in vain?” Verily, the conspiracies of the deniers have appeared attractive to them and they have gone astray. For those who go astray from Allah, there is no one who can guide them to the right path.

Our lesson is Surah Ar-Ra'd, the 33rd verse. We said that of Surah Ar-Ra'd the 33rd verse is a verse that is explained wrongly. The wrongly explained part is this. After I explain that part to you, let us continue our lesson.

"Indeed, to those who disbelieve their scheming has been made to seem fair," it says. This part is wrong.

Allah Almighty does not make anyone's scheming seem fair to them. Since what everyone earns is the return of their own two hands, that part's correct way is: "Indeed, the scheming of those who disbelieve seemed fair." Seemed fair to themselves. The scheming of those who disbelieve seemed fair to themselves. Allah did not make the scheming seem fair. Then, if Allah Almighty makes scheming seem fair, and if He is Allah and the power is His, if He will turn whatever He wishes into whatever form He wishes by His decree over His servant, then the verses He sent fall completely into contradiction. According to the verses that say, what you earn is the return of your own two hands.

Since everyone will be called to account by their own will. That is why everything, these people attribute to Allah. They attribute sin and reward to Allah as well. And if Allah makes a person commit both sin and good deeds, that person should receive reward because he carried out Allah's command. Even the one who sins. Because it is Allah's command. Allah makes him do it. Then where did the (?) good and the (?) evil that you did go? Today it is the return of your two hands. Of what you earned, it says. It is the return of your two hands. Where did the verses that will give you (?) go? Yes. With lies and errors, giving the verses meanings, squeezing the verses into their own minds, they try to explain them. Yet Allah does not fit into anyone's mind. A person can only try to grasp Allah in proportion to his faith, tries to understand, in proportion to his faith.

And Allah Almighty has given man such a mind that, Allah's command over us, and what He means by His verses, He has made us (?) with a mind able to grasp them. In that case, if we cannot understand from the verses, since no prophet will come again, He sends scholars in their place, scholars. Through these scholars, the meanings of the verses that people cannot understand are explained to them by the scholars, and in a verse Allah Almighty also says that your scholars' passing to the hereafter is like the sun going and darkness coming.

The One who watches over and preserves what everyone earns, who is this? Allah. The One who watches over and preserves what everyone earns. That is, He both sees and knows, and also by those on duty has it written down and preserves it. Because He Himself knows too, He watches. The One who watches and knows and preserves, it says. Both in His essence and through witnesses, through angels, through the recording angels. The angels on our right and left shoulders that we call Kiraman Katibin, those on the right write the good deeds, those on the left write the sins. Yes. What does it say now? Is the One who watches over and preserves what everyone earns like one who cannot do so at all?

Like whom? Like idols. Associating partners with Allah, although they know there is no god other than Allah, in their own minds, carving with their hands and shaping beings that Allah created, and as a god worshipping them. It says: just as Allah watches over and sees people, just as He preserves them, it says, can they be one with these? They associated partners with Allah. Yes. We said Allah Almighty created the universe with knowledge. Knowledge.

Allah Almighty, in everything He created, from the atom to the globe, these beings, the neutrons and protons in the atoms of matter, those electrodes, the positively and negatively charged electrodes, while turning around their own axes, produce a sound. Even though we do not hear this sound, Allah Almighty makes the matter He created recite one of His names, whichever He wishes. Why does He do this? Think of a factory. For example, let's say Lassa. (?) A product made by Sabancı. It has taken out the patent; no one can (?) anymore. Right? Someone makes a product, takes out his own patent, stamps it with his mark.

He says, I made this. Allah Almighty too, whatever He created from the atom to the globe, while turning the (?) in their atoms around their own axes, by the sound they produce making them remember His essence, He signifies that there is no god other than Him. And in the verse it says, the heavens and the earth and what is between them have known the remembrance of their Lord. Just as Prophet David made dhikr with the mountains and the birds. So, just as with a being that knows itself, each matter's dhikr, sir, one becomes aware of it, hears that sound and with it makes dhikr. Veysi Efendi is listening to me in Mecca.

A star is lit here. We told Veysi Efendi, Veysi Efendi, tonight you will stay on Jabal al-Nur. Whatever you see in one night, you will come and tell me.

Veysi is listening too.

I came to Medina. After me, he stays on Saturday. On Sunday, after staying on Jabal al-Nur, he comes. His face had gone pale. I asked, what happened? He said, by Allah, Hodja, the pebbles, he said, those stones, he said, I heard them making dhikr, he said. Isn't that so, Veysi? If you know how to write a question here, send it.

So all matter remembers Allah. And this signifies tawhid, that there is no god other than Allah.

"So give them names. What are they?" That is, give a name to these idols you created, you made, it says. What are they? What is it? What is it at all? Whatever name you give is your own invention. Because they are all beings created by Allah, His servants. That thing you have named. Even matter, even matter remembers Allah. On the Day of Judgment, when we are called to account, Allah Almighty will set up before them the gods, the idols they worshipped. "Did you say, we are your Lord?" Allah will ask those idols. They will be given speech. Never! We were unaware even of ourselves. Whatever You created us upon, we were on duty according to that.

We know nothing of these, they will say and move away, and they will be called to account for what they did. Yes. "So give them names. What are they?" Don't go far, give yourself a name. What are you? What are you? In you there is a part of your Lord. This skeleton called a body, made of flesh and bone, given to you, remembers Allah. Every bit of its matter, every cell, the atoms of every cell remember Allah. So when you are called to account tomorrow, this body of yours remembers its Lord, when He says, when you come into My presence with a driver, did you think this body that will bear witness against you was you yourself?

If this body, which He gave you so that it obeys you upon the natural disposition of Islam, unaware of your soul, by what your eyes see, you try to rule, you will suffer many torments. In us there is a soul, a part of our Lord. When we made a covenant with Allah, we did not make it with bodies. In the realm of Lahut we made the covenant with our souls. So what will be called to account tomorrow is my soul, not my body. According to the verse, We give you life twice and make you die twice. The first resurrection is upon the body here, the first death is upon the body here. The second resurrection is in the realm of the hereafter, upon the body there.

And the second death, after bearing witness, is to the soul; the second death is also there. Those superstitions, those who do not understand the verse, who put people into Paradise or Hell with the body. When you come today pure and clean, at the gate of Paradise they invent a lake and have the body washed there and then put into Paradise, these men. Today they lead millions behind them and, to these poor people, because of their faith, teach superstitions, these poor people, who tomorrow at the Great Court, without fearing the account they will give in Allah's presence, with the whims of the nafs, with the passion to be leaders, show people the way with fine words.

Yes. May Allah reform these too. And you, who... "Assalamu alaikum, Hodja, may Allah be pleased with you, it happened just as you described, I heard the stones making dhikr," he says.

We are trying to explain even a small part of our Lord's knowledge. That is what we are trying. Allah created these worlds with knowledge. We are trying to explain each of these sciences as a thing. Our business is not superstition. We do not deal in superstition. For people who judge by Allah's verses, superstitions bounce back as if they had hit armour.

Yes.

"Or are you speaking empty words?" it says.

"Indeed, to those who disbelieve, their scheming seemed fair." How beautiful. To those who disbelieve, the schemes they made seemed fair.

They strayed from the right path.

"Whoever strays from Allah, there is no one to guide him to the right path," it says. Of course, what does it say here in the rest?

"Indeed, to those who disbelieve, their scheming was made to seem fair, and they were held back from the right path." Allah held them back from the right path. "Whomever Allah leads astray" — oh, how nice. Like this, without shame, without fear, they say this as an attribute of their Allah. Look: "Whomever Allah leads astray, there is no one to guide him to the right path," it says.

Allah leads no one astray. He has left everyone free in their own will. Now, we are calling out with superstitions.

And I am even calling out to those who pass themselves off as scholars and are bound by superstitions like these. I am calling out.

If I am wrong, let them correct me. If they themselves are wrong, please let them correct themselves.

You have done away with partial free will. And you say exactly this.

Scholars, the old scholars, yes, speak of universal will and partial will, but they say it is not right to go into these matters. Into these matters, that's what they say, isn't it? Timuçin, you were probably there too. They spoke that way. If I am not mistaken, the people at the head of this Guidance Board. You were there too. What did they say? Scholars say so, but it is not right to go into these matters, they say. If it is not right to go into those matters, then people raised like you, raised from the root with superstitions like this, you fill their brains with superstitions like this, and in great Islam, making Islam follow mentalities with ulterior motives, you raise the people who come after you among superstitions in that way too.

Never refrain from speaking the truth. Even if it costs you your head.

You are obliged to speak the truth.

Even if it is your mother, your father, the one you love most, if they do not speak the truth, you are responsible for conveying the truth. Because there is the duty of enjoining good.

Yes.

Everything we say has witnesses. We do not speak superstition.

Yes. The verse — we are reading it, we will move on to its commentary. "Is the One who watches over and preserves what everyone earns like one who does not? They associated partners with Allah. So give them names. What are they? Or are you informing Allah of something on earth that He would not know? Or are you speaking empty words? Indeed, to those who disbelieve, their scheming seemed fair, and they strayed from the right path. Whoever strays from Allah, there is no one to guide him to the right path."

Here, one should actually add this to the end of this verse. "Whoever strays from Allah, as long as he remains on that path, there is no one to guide him to the right path" — that is what it signifies then. Yes.

Because people associated partners with Allah, Allah Almighty informs people that other than His essence there is no god.

The One who protects everything knowingly and those who watch over and preserve what everyone earns — can they be like one who is unaware of himself and cannot be aware of the created? Allah is the One aware of the state of the created in all existence. He knows the good and the good deeds that humans and jinn, all creatures, have done. He knows them. He writes them down and preserves them. The good and good deeds everyone does are written down daily and taken up.

These daily writings continue for a lifetime. The good and good deeds one has done will be shown to them at the Resurrection, on that Day of Reckoning. They will be shown.

Could there be another god to take this Allah's place and be worshipped as a god? Could there?

They associated partners with Allah, say: give them names, what are they? That is, give names to these idols you worship, what god is this, what work do they oversee? people: this is the god of the sea, this is the god of the air, or this is the god that distributes the wind. yes

What are we saying? People: this is the god of the sea, this is the god of the air, or this is the god that distributes sustenance. According to their minds, according to their minds, whatever came to them they said and took these as gods. It is to these people it addresses: "Or are you informing Allah of something on earth that He could not know? Or are you speaking empty words?" By saying this — did Allah fail to protect some of His creatures, or did invented gods create beings section by section and become the gods of the beings they created? Could Allah not create what they created, and in that case, taking many imaginary gods, did they associate partners with Allah?

By giving Allah attributes, did they think Allah was powerless? yes, those who deny Allah from their nafs, to Allah, denying Allah, being angry at Him, out of stubbornness, stubbornness, because he waits for the Lord in his imagination, carving and shaping invented matter made by his hand, and the soul of the Lord in his own imagination he puts inside it too, and says: we are actually not worshipping this. We are worshipping the soul of our Lord, he says. He brings Allah too and puts Him inside the idol.

Short-minded people. Yes.

Am I going to say something? No.

or are you speaking empty words? Out of your arrogance and pride, out of your worldly interests, although they know Allah, are you speaking empty words? Do they really know Allah? Yes. They know Allah.

They said yes, it says. Yes. What kind of yes is this yes? This is a very important point. The yes here, with the sudden coming alive of the souls, with the souls suddenly coming alive in that realm of Lahut, before them our Lord who created us, when He said, your Lord, because He gave them a part of His soul, our Lord who created us as a mirror to His essence, as an addressee, they could not recognise as Lord. Out of their pride and arrogance, although they knew there was an Allah who created them, they waited for the Lord in their imagination. That is their saying yes. Those who cannot know this, who cannot grasp this point, say that there all the souls recognised Allah and said yes, but on earth they denied.

Look, look at the understanding, look at the understanding. on earth they denied. Is there any being, anyone, who would break the covenant of a person who made a covenant with Allah? Since they know it this way, they say: they did not keep their word, they backed out, they say. They have closed off all the key points. All the (?) by which they attribute qualities to Allah, they have inserted into the explanations of the verses. That is why I say: I address the scholars who live Islam in the world. I address them. In the world, not in Turkey.

If I am mistaken, they will set me right. If I am really telling the truth, for Allah's sake I want nothing (?) with their conscience. My duty is for people to know the truth. I want them to return to the truth. I want them to speak the truth. If they want to serve Allah, if they want to be Allah's servants, let them return to Allah, to Allah's verses and to the Truth, and speak the Truth. For (?), for position, for money, for the world, let them not turn their backs on Allah and sell Allah's verses in exchange for material things.

Yes, out of your worldly interests, although they know Allah, are you speaking empty words? Denying Allah, who brought all this creation, the living and the non-living, the existence seen and unseen by the eye, from nothing into being, while over what He created no creator has any right — the Creator of all created matter is He — while none of us has any right over what He created, all of them, from the atom to the globe, are favours our Lord has granted us, these. Our eating and drinking, giving us our body, feeding it and giving it drink, our Lord has made an obligation upon Himself. Our Lord gives everyone their sustenance.

Do you own a single atom of the world? Do you own a single seed of it? If that were so, nothing of your world would be given to you, it says. So we have no right whatsoever over all these blessings of the world. The owner of the right is Allah. But because Allah Almighty created us, to give His creatures their sustenance, He has made this an obligation upon Himself. This matter is separate. Our right over what Allah created is separate. You should know it like this. No one has any right over what Allah created. The owner of the right is Allah. Yes. But it is out of our Lord's grace that He grants these to us.

What does it say? We will say it from the verse.

Yes.

When we come to Surah Ar-Rahman: "So then, which of your Lord's blessings can you deny?" it says. "This is the Hell that the guilty deny. They go round between Hell and boiling water." "Now which of your Lord's blessings can you deny?" it says. "For those who fear standing before their Lord there is one of two gardens." "So then, which of your Lord's blessings can you deny?" Even the Gardens are among our Lord's blessings. This means that Allah, who brought the universe from nothing into being, Himself has the disposal over the universe. The right — while it is a right, the owner of the right is Allah.

So, having created us too, so that we might prove to ourselves what kind of person we are, this body He gave us, in the realm of mulk, which is a hidden realm, in this realm of mulk, a realm where our comfort is not seen, eating and drinking, so that we prove what kind of person we are, Allah Almighty has made the sustenance He created an obligation upon Himself, for feeding us. For feeding us. In that case, over our Lord's blessings, which He made an obligation upon Himself, these blessings He gave to feed us, we too have no right.

We have no right even to Paradise. Then why did He create? He created so that His essence would be known. He was a hidden treasure. He gave us a part of His soul. He created us honoured above the worlds. In this world and in the hereafter, while we are owners of nothing at all, He bestows favours on us from His essence.

Yes.

What are we saying? Out of your worldly interests, although they know Allah, are you speaking empty words? Denying Allah, Allah, who brought all this creation, the living and the non-living, the existence seen by the eye and unseen, from nothing into being, while over what He created no created being has any right, did you think that what you made with your hands and invented as gods, that Allah could not watch over and protect what He created? Did you think that the idols you invented on top of that created and protected these? You associated partners with Allah, your idols; what Allah created, as if your invented idols had created it, you attached to your idols.

O man, by creation you are honoured, the noblest of creatures. As human beings we were created the noblest of creatures. Laqad khalaqna'l-insana fi ahsani taqwim. "I created man in the most beautiful form," it says. Wa lahu'l-asma'ul-husna. "The most beautiful attributes and forms are Mine too," it says. Some poor, deprived minds that cannot grasp this either. Look what it says. Laqad khalaqna'l-insana fi ahsani taqwim. "I created man in the most beautiful form," it says. Lahu'l-asma'ul-husna. "The most beautiful attribute is Mine too," it says. Form is separate, attribute is separate, they say.

Isn't this form of mine my own attribute? Isn't it? Allah does not separate man from His essence. Because He gives him a part of His soul. Yes, that human being is the noblest of creatures by creation, the most honoured and beautiful of the created, a being addressed by the Creator. When giving these names to these invented gods, with acts that even the most ignorant would laugh at a human being for, and that make him the laughing stock of the created, do not bring yourself down into disgrace. These behaviours do not fit the purpose of creation at all. So think and reflect, follow the path your mind shows; your nafs works together with the world and with Satan.

Do not follow these with it; strengthen your will so that you overcome the enemies in you, your nafs, Satan and love of the world, and find the truth. So, to those who associate partners with Allah or deny Allah, their scheming was made to seem fair, and from the right path they strayed. Whoever strays from Allah, there is no one to guide him to the right path. To those who deny Allah their scheming was made to seem fair, because in the beginning, at Qalu Bala, when people were left alone with their will, they were left free in the direction of their own wishes and desires.

They were asked to know Allah, who created them, by their own will. In that case, because man saw Allah, who created him, as very close to himself, out of the person being seized by arrogance and pride against Allah, he denied Allah, and this state was pleasing to his nafs.

So, although he knew he was created by an Allah, in his mind, while waiting for the Allah he had shaped in his mind, he denied the one who created him, and in the state he was in he made the covenant with Allah. Whatever their thoughts were in the beginning, at Qalu Bala, here they are the same. So these, although they know there is Allah, still, by their own minds, wait for the Allah they themselves imagined. As if worshipping the Allah they pictured in their minds, they worship idols made with their hands, making them resemble the god in their imagination.

Can they not think at all that those who have worshipped this way for so long have perished and gone? What kind of god is this that could not stand up for its creatures? It let them perish. So, because their desires and wishes please these people, people's not believing in Allah and not doing what He says — for these people doing it is a burden to them. That is, believing in Allah and doing what He says is a burden to these people. For this reason, they are in opposition to Allah. Out of this opposition, because they feel in the realm of mulk too the arrogance and pride they felt against Allah in the beginning, they stand against what Allah says (?).

They cannot turn to Allah. So these people, with this much truth, from the right path strayed. They denied Allah and the hereafter. The proof of what has been said is that people live these states. If people who do not believe in Allah and the hereafter lacked these traits, then those who wrote this would be falsely accusing these people. Yet these writings are the meanings of Allah's verses. What is expected of them is that they give the rightful one his due and, for their own salvation, return to the truth. That they submit to Allah. There is no being other than Allah who can show man what is right and bring him to salvation.

That is, here this meaning emerges: that there is no god other than Allah, that all this created existence belongs to Allah, and the reason for people's creation is to know their Lord. To be addressees of their Lord, with a creation close to their Lord. Moreover, even though as vicegerents of the earth they were created, and the created creatures on earth have been placed under man's command, it is for people to put their trust in Allah, and without desiring anything other than Allah, as servants to their Lord and as an ummah to His beloved, in the world, being governed by our Lord's sharia rulings, to live their life straight on the sirat al-mustaqim, and to go to the hereafter having won their Lord's good pleasure.

Yes. Our whole duty is within this sentence I have said. Yes.