Al-An'am 72: “And (we all have been ordered to continue to) establish the prayer (Salah) and fear Allah. You will be summoned in Allah’s presence.”

Surah Al-An'am, we have come to verse 72. Again, by keeping up prayer, we have been commanded to fear Allah. Again, by keeping up prayer, we have been commanded to fear Allah. He is the one before whom we will be gathered, it says, in prayer. Allah Almighty, in very many of His verses, always speaks of prayer, prayer. Even if a person has a friend among people, he is not always by his side. But a person's greatest friend is prayer. If he performs that prayer and opens his palms to Allah,

when he comes to a second prayer, Allah Almighty has his sins taken off his shoulder, and if that person performs his prayer free of sin, then when the noble angels say, shall I put these sins back on his shoulder, Allah Almighty says, does it befit Our glory that We give back what We took? Can a person have a friend like our Lord, who says erase it from them? Can there be a friend like prayer? So keep up prayer. There is no greater friend. Because that friend is Allah's command, it is our Lord Himself. Because we prostrate to Him. Before Him we are in qiyam, in ruku, in tahiyyat. So never neglect prayer, don't skip it, perform your prayers.

Even if it is hard, even if it weighs on a person's nafs. Yes.

Being in worship of Allah Almighty, by praying, we were commanded to be His servants.

Why had Allah Almighty created us anyway? He had created us so that His Self would be known. Isn't that so? Yes. Well, since He says I gave you the name Islam, Islam, Muslim, and for the Muslim, along with the kalima shahada, if prayer is obligatory for him,

if fasting is obligatory for him too,

hajj and zakat are for those with money, not from you if you're not among the moneyed, but He definitely wants that prayer. If you are Muslim, you will perform it, He says. Actually He addresses not just the Muslim but all people. All people, you will perform this prayer. Among all people there is a small distinction. One reaches the light of Islam with the kalima shahada. But (?) of things like prayer, fasting, hajj, zakat. He has no idea of any of them. But he's a Muslim. The other hasn't said the kalima shahada. He too lives just like the first one's life. In the end, the place both of them will go is the same.

But if one goes to the hereafter with faith, he serves his punishment as much as his torment. The one who goes with faith comes out of there. The one who goes without faith stays there forever. So, to be saved from this situation, we will perform our prayers. At least we'll have our evidence in hand. Our evidence. Now, we commit a crime. A crime. But in that crime there are mitigating penalties.

There are mitigating circumstances. Within the crime. However sinful we may be, within that crime we present our evidence that will lighten our crime. We say, look, sir, he did this and this and this to me, and I was forced to do this. What does the judge do? He sees there's evidence in hand; fine. He gives him a penalty too. If he's to be punished, his crime gets lighter. Prayer is like this too. In my hand there will be evidence against my crime, evidence. By that evidence Allah Almighty will pass him with favour, with favour. In the hereafter. But of course if you committed a very great crime, Allah Almighty, in comparison, perhaps still you, let's say, if you were to be put in shackles in prison, in the prison, in the best way, as if living in first-class hotels, five-star hotels, puts you in there and takes you out.

That's how valuable prayer is. We will keep up prayer.

If a person forgets the Creator who created him and granted him so much life, does he not become one of the wrongdoers? Yes. Does a person not become a wrongdoer?

Now, if someone said to me every day: tell me, dear, what do you need, you need so much money, take this, eat, drink, eat, enjoy yourself, eat. (?) he keeps on giving. Well, as a human I'd say to you (?), my agha, my pasha, you give me this (?), but what do you want from me? Do you want anything from me? Let me also contribute something to you. I mean, I'm ashamed now that you give me everything every day. And he says to me: no harm. Just say a prayer for me from here, that's enough, he says. Say a prayer, that's enough. Say a prayer, that's enough. Well, Allah Almighty also keeps giving us, giving, pouring it in like this.

Well, wouldn't I say: O my Lord, what do You want? What shall I do for You? And He will say: pray to Me at every meal. Pray for yourself. I have no need of prayer. Pray for yourself. Know Me as great, He says. And also, He says, toward these people, to them, as a lesson, because I will show you, fall into prostration, He says, pray. I will make your prophet, He says, a witness over the prophets. And his ummah I will make a witness over the other ummahs, He says. Let me show them what you did, He says. How beautiful.

How beautiful. I mean, is He asking something hard of us? As humans, listening to the voice of our conscience, to Allah Almighty who grants so many blessings and this life, will we never fall into prostration to the Most Merciful, that is, will we never thank Him, will we turn our backs? Allah forbid.

Yes.

When a person helps another person,

the person who received help, as a debt of gratitude, thanks the one who helped him. He expresses his thanks. He keeps giving, keeps giving. He says to that person, friend, may Allah be pleased with you. Thank you. He says, you see.

We helped someone. He writes me a message. May Allah be pleased with you.

I've started to stand on my own feet, he says. That's enough. What a beautiful thing. Yes. Truly beautiful.

And this person who received help wishes that, if he gets a chance, he could help the person who helped him. That's a person's feeling, if he is human. Allah gives man so many blessings. If man does not see (?) the giver of these blessings, aren't such people both ungrateful and wrongdoers? Toward their own nafs. If you wronged me, how much could you wrong me? At most I die and am gone. Your wrong stays with the pain I suffered. But if I wrong my own nafs, if I deny Allah, if I am ungrateful for the blessings He gave, then in that eternal life I end up in eternal wrong, and that is true wrong.

Fear a day on which the blessings given will be accounted for: so we were commanded. Indeed, as a human, Allah Almighty showers so many blessings on you, gives them. Yes, as Allah's servants, though He created us in (?) of helplessness, when He grants us all His blessings: O man, as your Lord, He says, don't associate a partner with Me.

Know Me as great and fall into prostration, and for the blessings I gave give thanks, He says. Give thanks. Yes.

We created you for this, He says. That is, this was so that His Self would be known. So that His Self would be known. O people, since we cannot escape death by running, since every mind knows it has a Lord who created it, surely one day every soul will taste death. Then in the hereafter Allah will raise people again and call them to account at the gathering place. This is an inescapable truth. How do you know, Hodja? You know, how do you know? he says. Well, does reason prove that these worlds have a creator? It proves it. However much you say it doesn't, it proves it. Because they said yes, He says.

Yes. That is, I was created by a God, by a Lord, he says.

In this case, the course and order of these worlds: is there life, reason in these worlds, and did they bring themselves to this state?

Well, do those who worship idols worship them because they don't know they were created by a Lord? Well, in the verse Allah Almighty says: do they have hands that hold, or eyes that see, or ears that hear, or feet that walk?

So Allah exists. If Allah exists, after proving this so much, did He create you in this world like animals, to enjoy yourself, eat and drink, and lie around?

Won't you think, what is my duty? Though you were created as the noblest of creatures, won't you think? In this case, though Allah Almighty with His verses, in this case with His prophets, then with the scholars who are their heirs, explains the truths to you, proving them again and again,

though your mind says yes on top of it, if you still give in to the whims of your nafs, if you follow Satan's track, since you are free in your partial will, won't you have wronged your own nafs? So since He did not send us to this world aimlessly, since He sent us to prove what kind of person we are, since He says every soul will taste death and your return is to Me, on that day of reckoning, at the supreme court, since He says on that day judgement is Allah's alone, given all this,

will you still believe that the hereafter (?)?

Yes. Think a little.

A day on which the blessings given will be accounted for: fear it, so we were commanded. O people! Since we cannot escape death by running, since every mind knows it has a Lord who created it, surely one day every soul will taste death; then in the hereafter Allah will raise people again and call them to account at the gathering place. This is an inescapable truth. So since you cannot escape these truths by running, through Satan and the nafs deceiving you, don't drag yourself into ruin with your eyes open. The will is yours. My Allah, if You had sent me a warner, I would have worshipped You that way.

Allah Almighty says, that's not possible. We would not destroy a city in its arrogance without first sending warners to its ringleaders, He says.

So from this it is understood that Allah Almighty does not call anyone to account for what He has not made known. Just so, today all people know what Islam is.

They also know whether Allah exists or not. Whether religious or irreligious. But out of stubbornness they associate partners with Allah. Because it pleases their nafs that way.

In this case they become wrongful toward their own nafs.

Allah Almighty makes these words of ours heard by them too. Look, today the world is listening, from America, Canada, Germany, Medina, Turkey, France. They're listening. Here it lights up, goes out. From Switzerland, from everywhere they're listening. Well Hodja, (?). Even if it's a single person, thousands are listening on Facebook. On Facebook. What I explain, they explain in other cities, to non-Muslims, in other places. And Allah Almighty is patient. Not hasty like us. Look, we wrote a book. He makes our books heard.

In some places our book goes around as a photocopy.

To one who understands, a mosquito is music; to one who doesn't, drum and zurna are too little.

Surah Al-An'am, seventy