Al-An'am 32: The worldly life is nothing but play and joy. Verily, for the muttaqi, the life in the hereafter is better. Can you not understand?

Page 210. Yes. Verse 32. Yes, here. The life of the world is nothing but play and amusement.

For the God-fearing, the abode of the Hereafter is surely better. Do you still not understand? Do you still not understand? Fuat says: I understood, Hodja. Thank you, he says. Yes.

The life of the world is nothing but play and amusement. In another verse He says the life of the world is not play and amusement.

The two verses seem as if they contradict each other. In one it says it is play and amusement. In the other it says it is not play and amusement.

Allah Almighty, who created people, made the covenant with them at the address 'Alastu bi- Rabbikum', wrote their wishes for them as destiny; Allah Almighty, who is free from imperfect attributes, sent people to the earth, sent them to a world where His Self is not seen. People make themselves, the people around them and Allah Almighty witnesses to what kind of people they are. So this worldly life is, in one sense, play and amusement. You know, children play house. Sometimes they become husband and wife. They have children and so on. They play. Children play in games like this. Sir, this place is also a place of play and amusement.

To people, to people, they earn, they marry, they have wives and children. A play and amusement. The world. But the verse after it, the verse that follows this one, this time proves it in the verse 'it is not play and amusement'. What does it say here? For the God-fearing, the abode of the Hereafter is surely better. So, it says, without looking at the play and amusement of this world. Without looking, without being absorbed, the deeds of the people who think of the end of the living world of the Hereafter, their relying on Allah; and for those who, by carrying out Allah's commands, have taqwa, the abode of the Hereafter is better, it says.

Yes. How beautiful.

So in one sense it is play and amusement, but in another sense, for the person who knows himself, who knows his Lord, although this world consists of play and amusement, in the end every soul will taste death, and according to the verse that says 'finally your return is to Allah', for the people of taqwa the abode of the Hereafter is better. Still, it says, do you not understand, it says. That is, being absorbed in the play and amusement of this world, like Leyla (?) when she lay, as she passed the time with chatter, as the cicada spent that time chirping, will you still waste your life in your world like this, it says?

Will you still be absorbed in the play and amusement of this world, it says. How beautifully He puts it. Yes. The life of the world is people's temporary lodging, their abode. Because those who made the covenant with Allah Almighty in the world of the Hereafter, who had their wishes and desires there written for them as destiny, play their scenario in the world like an actor, Allah Almighty, who likens the life of the world to play and amusement, reminding people of the truth and the abode of the Hereafter, says: this life of the world is nothing but play and amusement. What was it? When we made the covenant with Allah Almighty at the address 'Alastu bi-Rabbikum', our wishes and desires, our will, became destiny for us.

This destiny of ours was written as a scenario. As actors we play the scenario written in the world. When we say the written scenario, it is the scenario Allah Almighty wrote according to our wishes and desires. Not a scenario our Lord wrote. If Allah Almighty had written our scenario, He would have abolished hell. Yes. In this case, we, when we made the covenant with our Lord in the world of the Hereafter, come to the world of property to prove what kind of people we are. In the world of property Allah Almighty calls out to people. O people!

Use your intellect. This worldly life looks like play and amusement, but for the people of taqwa, that is, for those who know Allah, who try to know their nafs, who prepare for the abode of the Hereafter, the abode of the Hereafter is better. Let your world change accordingly, He says. How beautifully He puts it, doesn't He? Yes. If man uses his intellect, before Allah's oneness and unity, towards the Lord who created him, they realise that they did not come to the world only to eat, drink, acquire, enjoy pleasures and wander about.

If man uses his intellect: in this sentence I said, there is the quality of humanity. Humanity. What is the quality of humanity? He will use his intellect, he will know that he was created by his Lord, and he will rely on Him. Then here there is its counterpart in a verse. Allah Almighty, for those who do not know His Self, who are captive to their nafs, who deny Allah, says: they are like four-legged creatures going about on the earth. There we distinguish people by this verse. What do we say? If man uses his intellect, before Allah's oneness and unity, towards the Lord who created him, they realise that they did not come to the world only to eat, drink, have fun, enjoy pleasures and wander about.

They realise it. So who are those who cannot realise this? The people He says are like four-legged creatures wandering on the earth. Those who are human in appearance but animal in character. Yes. Even (?) more astray, it says. More astray.

People who cannot realise this play, in later years, in their lifetimes, the developed form, put into practice, of the house games children play at a young age, their lives as a play and amusement. They marry as if playing house. They play. Sir, let me say, they go shopping, they earn. That is, play and amusement.

Finally, at the completion of their lives, when the abode of truth is shown to them, they come to realise that while in the world they did nothing but play and amusement. What will he say? Alas! It was all a temporary abode, an abode of amusement. We, (?) our nafs in this abode of amusement, shirking our Lord, have used up our lives, they say. But such talk of theirs, their saying alas, will not bring their lives back to them. Regret is of no use.

But they have set out on a journey with no return. Their feelings of remorse are not capable of bringing these people back to the world again. Because Allah Almighty says in His verse: even if We sent you back not once but several more times, you would do the same thing again. The people of taqwa, on the other hand, while in the world, realise that this world consists of play and amusement. Without looking at those who live the carnal and satanic lives of the world, these turn towards the eternal, everlasting life of bliss of the world of the Hereafter. So it is a play and amusement, but the true abode is the world of the Hereafter.

In that way this one gets caught up in this world, which is play and amusement. Saying, I'll live in the finest way, he gathers without saying lawful or forbidden.

He has doubts about man being raised again after death. The life of the world is lived like this, he says.

If he tries to live this (?) in the finest form of carnal feelings, that person has truly been absorbed in the play and amusement of this world, has spent his life this way, and is like a bankrupt merchant.

Yes. And the person of taqwa, without looking at this play and amusement, builds up the abode of the Hereafter. Builds it up.

By arranging their lives in the world according to the verses Allah Almighty sent, they try to attain Allah's mercy. So, while living in the world, within this play and amusement, the people who prefer the abode of the Hereafter and are adorned and ruled by taqwa are the people who attain salvation. These are people who have won victory. Victory. Yes. Truly the world, within a person's lifetime, as a place of struggle, wrangling, effort, is the place of struggle of a person's life for the world of the Hereafter. Struggle. States wage war with each other. They die or are killed. This is a temporary world.

Some gain superiority over others, win victory. That victory is temporary too. Disbelievers also win victories against each other. But it is the temporary victory of the world. In the world of the Hereafter it is the torment of hell. Because he is a disbeliever. So when we say victory, the true victory is the victory of the people of the world, of the people living in the world who are honoured with the light of Islam, who arrange their lives the way Allah, our Lord, commands, and who live according to Allah's verses; of the people who win the world of the Hereafter, our Lord's mercy. This is victory. In my view this is victory.

Victories other than this are temporary. Yes, shall we not win victory? We will win. We will not (?) our homeland to anyone. Perhaps we will give our lives too. We will do this for our homeland, our honour, our nation. It is our Lord's command. But while doing this, we are again winning victory. Because we carry out our Lord's command, the victory of winning the ocean of martyrdom. That is, attaining the state of the people who are the masters of the world of the Hereafter, who are the heirs of the abode of Paradise. The victory of attaining the state of the people of taqwa. This is victory too. Isn't it salvation in the end?

With the victories states win against each other, doesn't that state attain salvation? So the victory I will win after tasting death within this body, within its clime, is victory. If within this body, within this bodily garment, I could not win the victory of the world of the Hereafter, like a bankrupt merchant I will have gone to the world of the Hereafter deprived of Allah's mercy, and, Allah protect us, that one is laid to bed in the abode of hell, of which He says: what an evil place of return it is. Yes.

Allah Almighty saying, as He reckoned, that although so many events appear before your eyes you still (?) cannot grasp, is His reminding people, while they are in the world, not to be carried away by the world's temporary pleasures and delights, and His inviting them to salvation. Yes. A person goes into a toy shop; there, at the various tanks or robots, sir, at the movements they make, he gets absorbed, and starts playing with them. Some buy them and play. So the world consists of such a play and amusement. But if a person uses his intellect; if he is going to amuse himself with the toy he bought from that toy seller, if he forgets the food at home, the provision of his wife and children, his duty to the one who created him, that person gets absorbed in that toy, and if he uses up his life that way, then in this world, which is play and amusement, he will have dragged his own nafs into disasters.

So, and the true abode of the people of the abode of taqwa, that is, oriented towards taqwa, is, in the world of the Hereafter, the abode of those who inherit (?).