Al-An'am 71: Say; ”Would we leave Allah and worship things that will not benefit nor harm us, and would we turn back while we have attained Allah’s guidance? It is (the example of) a person who is wandering on earth bewilderedly and whom the Shaytans are leading astray and leading to a cliff; on the other side, there are his friends. They call him to the right path and say, ‘come to us’.” Say; “Allah’s guidance is Islam, and this is the right path. We (all people who have their individual choice) have been ordered to surrender to the Lord of (all) the worlds.”

Allah's guidance is the right path itself. We have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds, it says.

Say: shall we leave Allah and, begging things that can neither benefit nor harm us, worship them? And while we have attained Allah's guidance, look, not 'while Allah has guided us', but 'and while we have attained Allah's guidance', shall we turn back on our heels? (?) Shall we turn back on our heels any more? Like the one who, while wandering bewildered on the earth, the devils lead astray and pull toward the cliff, while over here his friends say come to us, calling him to the right path. Say: Allah's guidance is the religion of Islam; this is the right path. We, those who hold partial will, so that we submit to the Lord of the worlds, have been commanded.

We, those who hold partial will, in parentheses: when it says we, it means all people. It means jinn and humans. Why did He create the jinn too? He created them so that His Self would be known. They too have their lofty and their low. So we must open the verse in a way that they don't contradict each other, so that the verse keeps being a verse. Yes. So although the 'we' here covers everyone, here it seems as if it addresses only Muslims. There, 'we', in parentheses: those who hold partial will, that is, fe men ya'mel miskale zerretin hayran yerah. Those who do an atom's weight of good and those who do an atom's weight of evil, since it will be recorded, those who within their partial will, by the deeds they did, earn reward and sin.

Who are they? Humans and jinn. Yes. We have been commanded to submit to the Lord of the worlds. We say.

The verse is like this. Let's put this here in the middle like this. Say to those idol-worshippers: shall we leave Allah and, begging things that can neither benefit nor harm us, worship them? What are the things? Those idols. Only idols? What all things people worship. There are some who worship Satan too. There are some who worship stars, the sun. There are some who worship moons. So there's no need to count them all. When it says things, they're included.

They too are lifeless beings Allah created. Those things it mentions, idols: all beings created other than Allah, by that word of Allah, that is, by His will, what our Lord created, all the creations of our Lord, besides whom there is no other god, are servants of Allah, who subsists by His Self. Servants of Allah. So will a person leave those servants Allah created, leave Allah, and worship those servants Allah created? If a person had reason, he would compare this. What does Allah Almighty say anyway? Do you not use your reason at all? He says. Do you not think at all? He says. Yes. A person will learn the ability to compare.

If a person has no ability to compare, he has no ability to think either; he doesn't think. Such a person only follows his nafs and admires his own mind; if he takes falsehood for truth, well, if he calls iron wood, he says it's (?) wood, he says it's wood. And so it goes. He doesn't want to learn the truth.

They too are lifeless beings Allah created. People begging what they made with their own hands, expecting help from them, does that befit people who will use their reason? Indeed, Allah Almighty created us capable. What does He say to that? (?) That is, capable. So where does capability come from?

It comes from that portion of His spirit our Lord gave to man. Because that spirit is in man, he possesses the faculty of capability. He will use his reason, think, well, compare, make inventions, make discoveries with what Allah created. That's capable. Yes. Well, if He gives it like this to man from His Self as a bearer of good tidings, and man abandons this capability, well, doesn't use his reason, and worships Allah's creations as Allah, as God, where has his capability gone? For such people, Allah Almighty has prepared eternal hell. Eternal hell. Because they did not use their reason, with the feelings of the nafs they deified themselves, they saw their own reason as superior; the religion of Islam, those who live the religion of Islam, they mocked, they never came to Allah's right path.

In this case they earned eternal hell.

And while Allah Almighty has guided us, we say, and while we have attained Allah's guidance, that is, while we have seen the truth through the scholars or prophets or books our Lord sent us, while we have seen the truth, while we have found Allah's right path in our minds and, using that reason, have seen that our Lord is truly the Truth, shall we turn back on our heels? That is, shall we turn back to falsehood again? Shall we worship Allah's creations? And shall we fall into that ugly state you have fallen into? Shall we fall into that base state? We? Allah forbid. Yes. Shall we go right back to that age of ignorance?

The age of ignorance. Before the prophets came, or before books or scholars reached them, they did it in the age of ignorance. And Allah Almighty says: We do not call anyone to account for what We have not made known. In this case, if you have heard it, and you deify your own stubbornness, your nafs, and turn your back on Allah's (?), where will you end up? Of course, in the place of torment Allah has prepared. Yes.

These are people who benefit from the earth Allah Almighty created. He created the world, He created the whole universe, and prepared an environment for people to live on earth, Allah Almighty. And into that world He worked all the needed materials, all the materials man would need. And He clothed people in the garment of a body and made it sustained by eating and drinking. Why did He do this? That person will eat and drink, raise the generation that comes after him; a responsibility will be laid on that person. For this person to be able to do these things he will buy and sell, trade, and that person, by this buying and selling and trading, how he behaved, will make himself witness to himself, to those around him and to Allah, and the verse 'Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are?' will become manifest.

Yes.

These are people who benefit from the earth Allah Almighty created. They taste all kinds of His blessings. Then, in the darkness of shirk, they wander bewildered on the earth. Why? They wander bewildered on the earth. We said that Allah's verses always confirm one another. They don't contradict. Yes. Allah Almighty says in His verse: their hearts are restless and scattered. Those whose (?) are restless and scattered, who expect a Lord as far as their own imaginations and cannot see that Lord, and who tie all of their lives to matter, who cannot find exactly what they imagined within that matter,

who, however far they reach what they imagined, still cannot be satisfied, will of course wander bewildered on the earth. Because that heart is restless and scattered, they will not find peace. That's why they will wander bewildered on the earth to appreciate themselves.

Yes.

In this case, will we who have faith become like the people who, following Satan, go to the cliff, who (?), they say. Or, we say, we address those people. O people, you too are servants Allah created. Allah Almighty created us so that His Self would be known. And because He values us so greatly, He gave a portion of His spirit. In that portion there is fame, renown, pride, arrogance, ego, grandeur and love of the world. These seven traits lie hidden in your nafs. If you, carried away by the grandeur of the nafs, by that fame, renown, pride, arrogance, bring these hidden things out and are ruled by them, then you wander bewildered on the earth.

You can never bow your neck to Allah. Because a person with that fame, renown, pride, with that grandeur, that ego, if he has also been carried away by the air of the world, can never bow his neck to Allah. On their necks, He says, We have put collars, collars. They have put collars on their necks; they cannot bow their necks to Allah. So take those collars off your neck. Break those traits in your nafs. So that, before Allah's oneness, before His grandeur, before His bringing into being from nothing, realizing that tomorrow he will be called to account in the divine presence, in the world, while life is a treasure, by falling into prostration he attains the quality of being His servant.

Otherwise, otherwise, and I'm not saying this only to him, for all of us, the world, the world turns into a paradise; if we follow our nafs, we think we live as in paradise, and we end up in the torment of the hereafter. Yes. Because your nafs shows you the world like those flowers blooming in swamps. And you think you are living by satisfying your nafs. Then in the hereafter you end up in Allah's torment. May Allah protect us. So Satan drags him to the cliff and to ruin; on the other side his friends invite him to salvation and deliverance; and this is in Allah Almighty's verse on commanding the good.

What does it say? Explain the truth to people, it says. Explain it. Yes. And what do they say to them? O friend! The path you are on is bad. You have followed Satan and the two-legged taghut. The world looks rosy to you. Tomorrow, on the Day of Judgement, when you are called to account before the owner of these worlds, how will you give account there? Have you ever thought about this? they say to their friends.

Hodja, who is even saying that? Today everyone knows this.

Everyone. Muslim and non-Muslim alike. Yes.

These friends, making Allah's commands known to those dragged into ruin, call out like this. O people! The right path is Allah's oneness and unity. Allah Almighty created these worlds in unity and togetherness. The worlds. Look, in the creation of this whole universe each one, in harmony, keeps revolving around another. They neither come closer to each other nor move away from each other. Unity and togetherness. Yes.

O people! As religion: inne'd-dîne indallâhi'l-İslâm. It is the religion of Islam. Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, that religion will never benefit him. So turn to your Lord. Your Lord pleased with you, and you pleased with your Lord, enter among the servants of Allah. Enter His paradise, they say, and with Allah's verses to guidance they call them. To guidance. What's it to you, Hodja? The man wanted it that way. You strain yourself explaining here. Don't say that. Why? What does He say? Doesn't He say: do commanding the good? Doesn't He say you are from the same origin? Didn't Allah create us as humans and give us a conscience?

If today in front of you, in front of you, even one who worships Satan is burning in flames, would you, as one with that conscience, that faith, watch him burn with pleasure? Personally, I can't watch. I try to save him. Hodja, he's a kafir, let him be. Let him be a kafir. The harm of his thing is over there, in the presence of his Lord. Here we are all of each other, we are from each other. From each other. Here we will always protect each other. What does Allah Almighty say in His verse? Do not mock any people. Perhaps that people is better than you, He says. So don't decide in advance. However non-Muslim he is, maybe tomorrow he repents and turns, maybe he reaches a state, a rank above you; if you had reached out your hand to him and scattered a little guidance with your words, that is, Allah's mercy, that is, if you told him of that guidance with His verses, and he too put out a shoot and, well, stood on his own feet, you wouldn't get (?) from him?

yes

Well,

Allah's guidance is the religion of Islam.

Because Allah Almighty created all people upon the nature of Islam.

This is the right path. Allah Almighty sent the Holy Quran to the worlds with the Seal of the Prophets, Hz. Muhammad, as a mercy, a mercy. If Allah Almighty discriminated among His servants, He would have said to the Prophet: Don't get involved with those People of the Book. Be with those who follow you, with Islam. And I send the Quran to them, He would have said. He would have said that, wouldn't He?

What does He say to the Prophet (peace be upon him), the Seal of the Prophets? And I sent you as a mercy to the worlds. Not only to humans. Not only to jinn either. To all His creatures. What did those polytheists say? Soon he'll bring out a law for animals too. He did, he did. Animals are not to be overloaded either.

Yes. He is a mercy to the worlds, to the worlds. Yes. So the Quran too is for the worlds. There is no discrimination. If a person discriminates in himself, that is between him and Allah. well Allah's guidance is the religion of Islam; this is the right path. Allah Almighty sent the Holy Quran to the worlds with the Seal of the Prophets, Hazrat Muhammad, as a mercy. Mercy. O people! The Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel are books Allah sent. The People of the Book means the books sent by our Lord. These books were sent to them with verses from the Quran. What was that? They were sent to them with verses from the Quran.

And in a way they would understand, according to their minds, He sent them.

Then, (?) toward a higher meaning, that is, Allah Almighty, gathering the Gospel, Torah and Psalms in the Quran, at a time when minds came into play, with the one who ended prophethood, Hz. Muhammad (peace be upon him), sent the Holy Quran to the worlds as a mercy. What is His mercy? O people! Do not follow the footsteps of taghut and Satan on dark and swampy roads. They invite you to fire, while your Lord invites you to salvation, deliverance, victory and paradise, He says. So do not follow the steps of Satan, He says. How beautifully He says it. These three books, together with their originals, are gathered in the fourth book, the Holy Quran.

Whoever deliberately denies a verse of the Holy Quran, since people deny their own books, they become kafir. The right path is the religion of Islam the Holy Quran shows. Let's emphasize this point a bit more. Whoever deliberately denies a verse of the Quran has left the religion of Islam, has become a kafir. The reason is important. Yes, we know, but what is the reason? Allah Almighty created all His creatures in need of His Self. He also limited people's minds. So that they know their helplessness and ask their Lord for forgiveness, He created them in helplessness. Who are you? You will dislike Allah's verse, you will take it out because 'I didn't like this verse'?

That is, you will act big toward your Lord. Here you became a kafir.

Yes. So whoever knowingly, deliberately (?) a verse becomes a kafir.

The right path is the religion of Islam the Holy Quran shows. With the traps of the nafs and Satan, the world appearing rosy and adorned to man, let it not take you away from Allah, from the straight path, from the right way. That's how the world looks rosy to man.

If people had a thousand years of life, they'd want to live a thousand more. Especially if their pleasures are in place. If he has a horse and cart, a summer house and a winter house, and his income is in place too, he'd want to live not a thousand but two thousand years more. Yes, however long you live, in the end every soul will taste death, and your return is to Allah Almighty.

Just as man strives for his life in the world, just as man strives to keep those around him living in the best way,

more than that, he will strive to earn Allah's mercy in the hereafter. Beyond this, to earn our Lord's station of intercession he will strive. Beyond this too, to receive his loved ones from his Lord through supplication, while in the world to his Lord, with such worship, with such pleasure of heart and closeness of heart, he will trust and submit to his Lord, and when man, in that hereafter where his Lord will receive him with a smiling face, reaches a station where he will be received with a smiling face, what does Allah Almighty say? You will attain the verse where He says neither a stain nor sorrow touches their faces.

Then you are victorious. Then you have grown. Then you are great. You have won the victory of His paradise. And of your mother, your father, your beloved, your aunts, your uncle, or some of your friends, you have also saved some of those who would enter hell. Well, was the greatness of the world better, or is the greatness here better?

Now compare. This world will pass anyway. Oh Hodja, he wins both the world and that. Oh, I don't say anything against that. Those who strive with their wealth and their lives, He says. How beautifully He says it. If he can strive with wealth, of course. If he doesn't act with ego, like Korah. Yes, we to the Lord of the worlds, so that we be true Muslims, have been commanded; here it's as if it addresses Muslims, but actually we clarify: those who hold partial will. The Quran came to humans and jinn.

In this case, in this case, those who hold partial will, those who hold partial will, people as true Muslims to Allah, that is, fully submitting, not going against Allah, not turning their backs on Him, as such people we have been commanded, He says. Why did He create, we said? So that His Self would be known. Allah Almighty created so many beings. He created the angels too. Couldn't the angels know His Self? They couldn't. They couldn't know His Self.

Hodja, you're talking very big. How couldn't they? They were programmed, programmed. Like robots: just as He programmed all the animals, He programmed them too for their duties. They are genderless; for the duties they will do, since they have no nafs either, since they are without nafs, without tiring, without getting bored, they do the duty they are to do; if it is dhikr they do dhikr, whatever that duty is they carry it out. Humans and jinn were left free in their will. Let me tell you this much: if the accursed Iblis taught the angel, taught the angels, then even the jinn are superior to the angels.

Their lofty ones. Because they acted with their partial will. Well, if man is a portion of his Lord, if He gave from it a portion, he is the most honourable being. So with those who hold partial will Allah Almighty willed His Self to be known. Because He left them free in their will; those free in their will He never programmed. Those people had themselves programmed. With what? With their wishes and desires. So three groups emerged. Ve küntüm ezvâcen selâseh. Three groups. All the pairs come from one another. Ve ashâbü'l-meymeneti mâ ashâbü'l-meymeneh: those on the right. Ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü'l-meş'emeh: those on the left.

That is, the deniers. Ve's-sâbikûne's-sâbikûn, ulâike'l-mukarrabûn, fî cennâti'n-naîm. A third group: the group of the foremost. The group of saints, prophets, martyrs and witnesses emerged. Yes, and in this way every person had himself programmed. So, to the Lord of the worlds, so that we be true Muslims, we have been commanded. That is, those who hold partial will; Allah Almighty created us, people, like this. After we saw guidance, after we attained guidance, after we listened to this command with all our heart, would we go back to the age of ignorance again? He says. Yes, these people who in the gathering of Elest, at qalu bala, gave a good covenant to Allah Almighty, aware of the secret of the verse 'whoever helps Allah's religion', explain the way of Allah and His Messenger to people.

The way of Allah and His Messenger. Yes. The scholars of my ummah are my heirs, he says. His heirs. What kind of heir is this heir? You need to know that well. Many people say I'm a scholar; he has no awareness of himself, he knows some Arabic; today there are people who know English, people who know German, French, there are all sorts, there are languages; he knows a language. With that he thinks he is a scholar. Yet he opens the Quran all wrong.

And he considers himself the (?) of the Prophet.

Well, who is the heir? The heir,

I'll tell you this much.

Did the Prophet (peace be upon him) have a teacher in the world? No. Who raised him? Allah Almighty. He was unlettered, wasn't he? Unlettered. People raised on the same path are his heirs, the scholars. The people of whom he said: the saint of my ummah is like a prophet of the Children of Israel. What happened to you that by knowing some Arabic you became a scholar and the Prophet's heir? These words weigh on your nafs, don't they? Don't let them weigh on you. Weigh yourself, know where you are, so that if you understand the truth better, you draw closer to your Lord better. That's why I tell you this.

Those who, aware of the secret of the verse 'whoever helps Allah's religion', explain the way of Allah and His Messenger to people are the people of whom he said the scholars of my ummah are my heirs; to touch a little on this hadith, these are people who have reformed the nafs, risen to nafs al-mutma'inna, attained the manifestations: the saint of my ummah is like a prophet of the Children of Israel, people who have come to the state he described. These, as scholars, are heirs of the Prophet. People outside this, who have no awareness of themselves, who, by the labels others give, 'I'm a scholar', thinking themselves scholars, try to claim these stations for themselves, are perhaps, at some level, lesson teachers.

At some level.

If those so-called scholars were truly scholars, the verses would neither be opened so wrongly, nor would people today have come to this state. Those who become bait for the traps non-Muslims set in front of them, saying we're enlightened, for enlightened thinking, honouring falsehood, so as to win favour in the direction of their nafs's feelings, imitating what those who delight in their nafs do, brought these people to this state.

They will bear their burdens.

Yes. They will bear their burdens. True, every person is responsible for what he does, but also, instead of explaining the truth to them, they tell it with lies (?), going astray.

So people who have risen to these stations spiritually and in truth are people with a duty. Since in their covenant too they gave a good covenant to Allah Almighty, Allah too programmed them as true Muslims. According to the covenant he himself gave, they were programmed as true Muslims. These never compromise on Allah's verses and the right path. Even if their heads go, they, quite content, will not turn their backs on Allah's verses.

When Pharaoh gathered the sorcerers and set them against Hazrat Moses, when the sorcerers' magic came to nothing, I truly envy those sorcerers now.

I envy those sorcerers. What a beautiful (?) they leave behind, look. Who told you, Pharaoh says, who told you to become Muslims without my permission? So Moses is your chief, he says. I will have your hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, and I will hang you on the gallows. Let's see whose torment is greater, he says, the poor man. Truly a poor man. What do the sorcerers say? No harm, they say. Look, in that situation, his hand will be cut off, his foot cut off, he will mount the scaffold, and what does he say? No harm. We will be returned to our Lord anyway, he says. We hope our Lord will forgive us, he says.

We believed in the God of Moses, he says. Is there such a brave man who will say this? There are, like the Companions of the Cave. Such brave men always exist.

But if (?) (?) Yes.