Al-An'am 31: Those who deny that they will be brought to the presence of Allah are in a loss. When finally, the time of the Day of Judgment will arrive to them unexpectedly, they will load the burden of their sins and say; “Woe upon us! For abandoning good deeds on earth.” Beware, vile is what they load as burden!

Illallah. Surah Al-An'am, verse 31. Those who deny the meeting with Allah have truly suffered loss, it says.

Now the hadith (?). What I said a moment ago: the bankrupt of my community is not the one who goes bankrupt in the world, but the one who goes bankrupt in the Hereafter. What does it say now? Those who deny the meeting with Allah have truly suffered loss, it says. So he has gone bankrupt. Even if you had not just this property of the world but one more.

You have suffered loss. You have gone bankrupt.

Finally, when the Hour comes upon them suddenly, they, carrying their sins on their backs, will say: because we abandoned good deeds in the world, woe to us, he will say. Woe. Pay attention. What does Allah Almighty say? Look, pay attention. How evil is what they carry, it says.

Yes.

But when we say that Hour, not the doom of the world, the doom of that world. With death, my own doom too. You too, in the clime of the body of a state; this is a great state, this state disappears, disappears with death. So, a final respect to the funeral; that, which served as a mount for that person while alive, a person stands in respect to the trust Allah gave him, to that trust. Because this is a last state. It is going.

Now there is no respect for the funeral either. Because man has no respect for himself. He doesn't know what he is.

Those who deny the meeting with Allah Almighty, that is, those who try to convince themselves that there is no resurrection after death, have truly suffered loss. These are people who have wronged their own nafs. They are the ones who take on the torment of the eternal life. Anyway, if you pay attention, in what we have been explaining from above, the verses always support one another anyway. You can't find a single one that contradicts the verses. (?)

People think their lives are very long and their death very far from them.

Don't we think so? No one remembers death. A long time. When? Live as long as you can.

But there are times when one realises it is right on one's nose.

Future times come to people as a very long time. Future time. Very long years, very long. When I was a child, in the neighbourhood we used to play tipcat, like this, with sticks. It always came to my mind: when is death? Years seemed very long to me, behind the mountains. How old was I? About nine or ten, about eight or nine.

How old am I now? Seventy-three.

How many years have passed? Sixty-some years have passed. Tell me, Hodja, sixty-some years, you know, years that passed. How can you not feel this? To me it seems like a time like cigarette smoke dispersing before one's eyes.

Maybe I've told you. My niece got married. My niece. I was going to take her a present. I was in Istanbul then. I was going to take her a present. I'll take it today, I'll take it tomorrow. I'll take it today, I'll take it tomorrow.

I went. She is married in Samsun. I went to (?). I'll give her present. The present is in the back of the car.

A wedding present.

At that moment a child came in. About eight or nine years old. (?), she said. This was my older sister's daughter. Uncle, she said. This is my son, she said. Introducing him to me, of course. In front. I think she's joking. To me it felt like about five or six months had passed. That's how I feel. Five or six months. As if (?), another child came in. He too about nine or ten.

This is my son too, she said.

And I, you know, there are neighbours there. I think they're theirs or something. That's what I think. Can a five-or-six-month marriage have a ten-year-old child? No.

A third boy came in. About twelve years old. When she said this is my son too, I said: look here. I'll gouge your eyes out now, I said. Speak straight, I said. No, by Allah, uncle, she said. These are my children. What are you saying? Uncle, she said. It's been 13 years since I got married, she said.

Out of my embarrassment the present wasn't taken out of the car and given.

I'm saying 5 or 6 months have passed anyway. 13 years had passed. 13 years. I lived this. Lived it. My God, Allah. Yes.

That's why don't see death as far away. And don't you dare put it behind you. Yes. My God, Allah.

So future times come to people as a very long time. When he looks at the past, he sees that past times went by like hours. Man doesn't use his mind. If he is with his nafs, in return for future times seeming very long to him, enjoying the pleasures and delights of the world, turning his back on Allah, you carried on your life. In the end they see that death has caught them.

Death has come. So be it. There is no escape. My Allah, send me back once more. Just look how I will worship. Even if We sent you back not once but several more times, you would do the same thing again. So at the moment of death, when the soul comes to the throat, when such people are shown the places they will go, the places they will go, the door of repentance has closed. Even before the soul leaves, the places he will go are shown to him. With regret, for having abandoned the good deeds in the world, they will say: woe to us. Their saying it this way: since Allah Almighty created man very close to Himself, man has passed into the state of denying Allah Almighty.

These people lamenting this way, knowing that Allah exists, is because they are still in 'I wonder', saying is this Allah really Allah, and because they do not believe in Him. In hell too, within so much torment, because their hearts are not at peace, they will take on the eternal torment. Their hearts are not at peace. Because characters are like that.

Allah Almighty says in His verse: pay attention. Pay attention. How evil is what they carry.

Here we can draw another meaning like this.

Saying pay attention: how evil is what they loaded.

Even if the world were adorned with ruby, peridot, gold, pearl, diamond, and all of it were yours, Allah Almighty, who does not value the world even as much as a speck, says: pay attention, how evil is what he carries. For a sin, against his turning his back on Allah, this world, if it were of gold, peridot, ruby, whatever (?) comes to your mind, if it were made of that, against that load of sin, this wealth of this world now counts for nothing. Pay attention. How evil is what he carries, it says. How evil. It doesn't say: you carried the world, but the world. It doesn't say: well, in return for it I'll erase a little of your sin here.

Look. And because you loaded up the world, because you did not (?) it in the way of Allah, because you were stingy with it and did not feed the poor and needy, because you did not hold out your hand to the (?), the orphan, the stranded, because you did not help a charitable institution, you took its burden on your back too. Pay attention, it says, how evil is what he carries. So the world's most enormous wealth, against the sin you have committed, that wealth is nothing. It flies away like the vapour of water. It flies away. But that root, that sin, stays on your back.

Because you loaded yourself with it. Yes. When that worldly wealth you earned, that jewel, goes like water boiling with fire and turning into vapour, its burden remains on your back as a load. So it says: pay attention. How evil is what he carries, it says. Yes. Allah Almighty says in His verse: pay attention. How evil is what he carries, He says. Allah Almighty wants us to focus our attention on one thing. He advises us to focus our attention there. The object He has shown is the loads of sin. People can take on their backs a load from created things. From created things. They can take a load.

When he gets tired he takes it off his back. O man! Pay attention! This load is such a load that, with the load of sin you cannot throw off your back even when tired, you take on the agony of an eternal and deathless life.

There! Pay attention to this! If you are saved from this, you have won a great victory and you have become one of the saved. If you do the opposite, follow your nafs, and take on a load of sin, you become one of those who harm their own nafs. Be entrusted to Allah. Yes.

Thank you.