Al-An'am 124: When a verse came to them, they said; “Unless we receive (something) similar to that which has been given to the Messengers of Allah, we will not believe!” Allah knows best to whom to give Allah’s Prophethood. In return for their plots, despicableness and severe punishment from Allah will reach the wrongdoers.

Now we begin our lesson.

Verse 124 of Surah Al-An'am. When a verse came to them, to whom? To the non-Muslims. they said: we will certainly not believe unless we are given the like of what was given to Allah's messengers they said. They say so, because they are dead people. (?) Hazrat Yunus Emre has a saying on this. How beautiful. One who does not know where he came from and where he goes is an animal, he says. To whom will prophethood be given? To whom will scholarship be given?

Allah knows this. You cannot know it. This is within Allah's knowledge.

If you too had been among the first created people, that is, the Prophet (peace be upon him) — if you had been a person like the prophets, the first created from his spirit, and if, before people were even created, Allah Almighty had made a covenant with the prophets: when I send you a prophet, will you support him? Will you explain to your community what I have said? Say yes and be witnesses. And I am a witness over you, He said — were you among the whole of the prophets then? You said: unless we are given what was given to him, we will never believe. Those who live in ignorance, superstition and shirk.

Oh Allah. Yes.

People far from the Truth, from reality.

Now this part will be understood better. Let me read it once more. When a verse came to them, they said: unless we are given the like of what was given to Allah's messengers we will certainly not believe. Yes, if you had believed, in the realm of the covenant, when our Lord created the souls, you would have obeyed my Lord there. You — to Allah Almighty, who gave you of His spirit, who gave of His spirit to none else in the worlds and created man as the noblest of creation — if you rebel at that Elestü bi-Rabbiküm (?), that is, if you do not recognise Him as Lord, if you recognise the Lord of your imagination, if you deny the One who created you, your scenario is written that way, and in the world you will play it out exactly. Well, Hodja, why did we come then, if we are to play it out exactly?

Allah Almighty is free from deficient attributes. So that you would not say: here You showed me Your Being; had You sent me to an unseen world, to a world where Your Being is not seen, I would have worshipped You so beautifully there — so that you would not say that. From Allah's attribute of being God, by bringing forth every lack, all the deficiencies, all the questions people would ask, in order to leave people no more questions, He created these worlds. You, who denied in the beginning and had your heart sealed — of the group of people of whom He said: Hatemallâhu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâvetün ve lehüm azâbün azîm — you will of course be (?) this way.

Allah knows best to whom He will give His prophethood. Of course, we just explained: He knows best to whom He will give it.

For the wrongdoers, in return for the tricks they used to play, from Allah a humiliation and a severe punishment will come, it says.

For the wrongdoers.

So Allah knows best to whom He will give His prophethood. For the wrongdoers, in return for the violations they used to commit, from Allah a humiliation and a severe punishment will come, it says. Who are the wrongdoers? Do we not do wrong? Allah Almighty will punish us too with a humiliation, I mean, and a severe punishment. A humiliation from Him, it says. We are Muslims. Muslim. That is, we are people who have said the word of testimony and believed in Allah. We are people who believe in the one God. One of the great sins is associating partners with Allah. Praise be to Allah. Muslims do not associate partners with Allah.

And since Allah made people with deficiencies, this verse is not about the Muslims. Listen well. The verse is not about the Muslims. About the non-Muslims. About the non-Muslims. Why about the non-Muslims? Now listen well. To them, it says, a humiliation and a severe punishment. What is humiliation? Note: about the non-Muslims. Towards the Muslims they are in boasting, in self-aggrandisement, in whim, in pride, in arrogance. Why so? Because there are (?) on their necks. They cannot bow their necks down. That is, their pride and arrogance, their ego, fame and glory — have taken them far from Allah.

According to the verse (?) who deifies his own nafs, people who, with the passion to be the head, I mean, see themselves as superhuman and go their own way — if they are Muslims, however much fame, glory, pride and arrogance they have, at some point they bow their necks and submit to their Lord. Now, in this way, people who live in fame and glory, pride and arrogance, in the hereafter, in the hereafter, when they see the people they looked down on in the high stations of the exalted Paradise — when they say: we cannot see beside us those who were below us — when our Lord shows them those people in very beautiful stations in Paradise, this humiliation of theirs, being humiliated, that state will give them more pain than even that severe torment.

When, with his pride and arrogance, he sees that the person he despised is in high stations, he will be humiliated, yes, humiliated. This humiliation will feel worse to him than that burning torment. So be it. What will feel bad to him? Because of his pride and arrogance. Because of the grudge inside him. Yes.

And after that there is a tremendous punishment. There is a severe punishment. What is this severe punishment?

We will expose them to the Fire, it says. When that flame surrounds them from front and back, their mouths, their lips will open, their teeth will (?), they will be like grinning people, it says. Yes.

When verses come from Allah to people left in the darkness of kufr and shirk, merely because they are enemies of Allah and His Prophet, so as to object, they said: unless we are given the like of what was given to Allah's messengers, we will certainly not believe.

First we explain it. Then we read our tafsir. If the tafsir has additions, we explain those to you too. Yes. If there are no additions, we add them. In this way the verses are understood better.

Allah Almighty says in His verse: if Allah had followed their desires, the heavens and the earth and what is between them would have been drowned in corruption. Yes. Allah Almighty follows no one's desire. He says the same to the Prophet (peace be upon him). If you do not follow their desires, He says... Things fall into corruption. Yes. Consult with them. Once you have decided, do not go back on your decision, He says. How beautifully He says it. Yes. Anyway, if prophethood were given to such people, people who do not know what prophethood is would then, like Pharaoh and Nimrod, set out to claim godhood and declare themselves gods.

Yes. Now there comes to my mind an event that happened. I was just growing in spirituality then. 40 years, 45 years ago. The year 68.

How many years is that?

Not 68, 72. The year 72.

40 years. And 4 years before that too, this was 40 years ago, an event in 72. Someone came straight up to me. I won't say his name. You are my hodja, he said. Oh son, I don't understand anything about being a hodja. Go your way, I said. No, you are my hodja. Some states had appeared in me too, I was just growing in spirituality. I was telling him about some events. Hey, hey, I said, where did this being a hodja come from? By Allah, he said, I rose as far as sainthood, he said. I became a saint, he said. Then, he said, saying to those around me I am a saint, he said, I am close to Allah, he said, I started wreaking havoc, he said.

Look, those here who know him are already telling each other who it is. Yes. After that, he said, they called me a liar, he said, and drove me away, he said.

I won't leave you anymore, he said. I won't leave you. He is still alive. Right now he is on umrah too. May Allah keep him safe. I mean, an afflicted person. He understood the truth of the matter, of course. I mean, so he was still a Muslim. And because he was a Muslim, he saw the truth and understood his deficiency. He understood his mistake. And these — and then the non-Muslim. If these had authority, if they had prophethood, as I said, they would fall into the state of Nimrods, the state of Pharaohs, they would declare themselves gods.

Yes.

Because these people denied their Lord in the beginning and merged with fame, glory, pride, arrogance, egotism, grandeur and worldly desire. They are people living intertwined with the traits that Allah Almighty is an enemy of by His Being. Allah Almighty is an enemy of these traits by His Being. The traits I am about to list. These are seven traits. Fame, glory, pride, arrogance, ego, grandeur and love of the world.

Well, Hodja, which of us does not have these traits then? Allah Almighty says to the soul, to the soul — soul, nafs and life are one — I will give you such a trust that if you follow that trust, that (?), I will abase you, He says. If you bring it under your rule, I will make you a vizier, (?), He says. These are the states of the nafs. The traits I listed are the states of the nafs. Whenever you break this, rule over them, the reins of that horse, the reins of the horse rearing up — if you tame that rearing horse and bring it under your command, you become Allah's vizier. But if that rearing horse throws you off its back, and you follow after it by its halter so that your horse does not run away, then you are abased.

Illallah. Yes.

Because with these traits they act big against Allah Almighty, if they had been given the authority of prophethood, what would these people not do with these feelings? Because his Lord makes verses known to him.

What would these not do? Yes, I just explained it too: what are the prophets like?

Created from the spirit of the Prophet, the first created. However many prophets and nabis will come to the world — according to one narration 124,000 prophets, they say. Since we do not know the actual number, we believe this too. 124,000 prophets and nabis. Who have come and gone. Yes. Allah knows the truth.

Allah Almighty does not leave people without scholars, of course. In this case, those nabis, those who would come to the world, and the peoples created from his spirit too — peoples, peoples — before these peoples were even created, Allah Almighty made a covenant with them and was witness over them.

Now, among these, Prophet Jonah erred.

He fled from his people. But he had a covenant he gave in the beginning, what was it? He was to tell his community. In the world, Prophet Jonah (peace be upon him) says: you people who do not understand words, am I to tell you Allah's greeting? and leaves his people. At sea, on a ship, on a ship, when it is about to sink, they draw lots. We will throw someone into the sea, they say. It falls to Prophet Jonah. Allah Almighty wills it so. Because he fled from his people, He throws him into the sea. Could He not have punished him? He could have. This was not a punishment for him, it was a reproach.

Jonah, that is, a fish takes him. It carries him in its belly for about forty days. In the darknesses, it says. He said this, it says: Lâ ilâhe illâ ente sübhâneke innî küntü mine'z-zâlimîn. O my Lord, I wronged my own self, forgive me. He understands the situation. Then, it says, We brought him out onto land half sick, that is, in a living state, it says. We grew thick-leaved, that is, broad-leaved plants of the gourd kind. We protected him from the sun. We fed him of its fruit. And We sent him to his people. And his people, it says, became Muslims. And We provided for them until then, it says.

So what was his covenant? His covenant was to tell his people. His covenant. And Allah Almighty was witness to it. In the world a person can err. He too fell into such an error. But later he understood. He understood. Well, was he the only one who erred? Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) too. He left Paradise. Satan deceived him.

So a person will live according to the covenant he gave. Even if he runs off here and there, (?), it says. (?) It draws. (?), it says. It draws to its kind. They will complete their nature (?) the covenant they gave. In this case Allah Almighty is the One who knows to whom He will give prophethood, to whom He will give scholarship. According to what does He know? At the address Elestü bi-Rabbiküm, We made a covenant with the children of Adam, with those who would appear from your offspring, and We said to you: We are your Lord. When He said this, making a covenant with them and writing each one's wish and desire, his will, for him as his destiny, having the scenario written there, Allah Almighty — of those people, what state they are in — those people who know, those scholars, those who have that character, He makes prophets or scholars.

Prophets earlier, and after that He makes scholars. Yes.

Yes.

In this respect, to those who say: as long as we are given the like of what was given to Allah's messengers, unless we are given it, we will certainly not believe.

Even if He gives it, you will not believe.

Because you do not have a power that could change your destiny. Because you are a liar.

Allah Almighty says in His verse: they are lying disbelievers. Lying disbelievers. In this case, those stamped as lying disbelievers, who at that address Elestü bi-Rabbiküm, facing Him, when He said I am your Lord, denied their Creator, waited for the Lord of their imagination and became intimate with it in the world, who turn their backs on Allah by worshipping those idols they made with their own hands — even if such people were given prophethood, they would still deny Allah. Yes.

Even if those verses were given to you, you would still deny. Because if We do not will, you cannot will, says Allah Almighty. Unless He wills what, can you not will? You are not able to change even the destiny you will live by yourself.

Why, Hodja? Because what happened has happened, what is done is done. You wanted those characters in the beginning and in essence, and those characters were written for you as destiny, they were written. And from Allah Almighty a word like this remained. Paradise and Hell.

Yes. If Allah Almighty had removed His servants' will and used His own will over His servants, He would have abolished Hell. In this case, in this case, if Paradise and Hell are lasting, if people earn reward and sin by their own will, by the deeds they have done — if they earn them, as He said, if, according to the verse, it is written by the deeds he did — All the azwaj, coming from one another, are of 3 classes. O people of the right, good tidings to you. O people of the left, woe to you.

A third group, it says, the group of the foremost, sâbikûn. The group of the saints, the friends of Allah, the martyrs, the witnesses, it says. Peace be upon these too, it says. Yes.

So we were divided there.

We had our destiny set in motion there.

And also by the verse: unless We will, you cannot will. (?) we came to an unseen world. We do not know what kind of covenant we gave there.

In this case Allah Almighty, in the earthly world, in a world where His Being is not seen, started us from zero. We all came into the world equal. We came from zero.

Those worlds were closed, but we have their memories. Then, O man, on what basis did you turn your back on the One who created you? On what basis did you say: unless what came to the prophets also comes to me, I will never believe you? If you had really believed, you would have believed that prophet too. What came to him, what came to that prophet, did not come to me, yet I believed — so why do you not believe? Then there is a difference between us. What is this difference, Hodja? That is: Fe ashâbü'l-meymeneti mâ ashâbü'l-meymeneh, we are the people of the right. Ve ashâbü'l-meş'emeti mâ ashâbü'l-meş'emeh, and you are the people of the left.

Yes.

All of them, Hodja? Allah Almighty is free from deficient attributes. So that you would not say: had You let me live in a land of Islam, had You let me be born there, had I grown up there, I would have become a Muslim. (?), people living in a land of Islam turn to kufr, and people living in a land of the unbelievers turn to Islam. Here is an example for you. Prophet Abraham's father. He was an idolater. Prophet Abraham, though, is a hanif of his nation. I am a hanif. Since my childhood I have always believed in the one Allah, and in my mind I always said Allah. I associated nothing with Him. Yes.

Prophet Noah's son was also beside the Prophet. But he went to kufr. Yes.

Allah Almighty is free from deficient attributes.

Then on what basis do you say: unless the original of what was not given to the prophet is also given to me, I will never believe? Even if it were given to you so that you would not disbelieve, there is denial in your own nature, and that is why you do not believe. From your nature. Yes. I wonder whether we can explain these parts? I suppose it is understood. Yes.

In this respect, to those who say: unless we are given the like of what was given to Allah's messengers, we will certainly not believe — Allah Almighty answers: Allah knows best to whom He will give His prophethood. These prophets, by the strong covenants they gave Allah in the beginning — Allah sent them among people as prophets. (?) What are we saying? By the strong covenants they gave Allah, Allah sent them among people as prophets. In this respect, for His prophets, by the verse: no prophet calls people to himself, He shows people that the prophets are true messengers who call people to Allah — this is what He declares.

Why does He say it? None of them would say it. He cannot say it. If one of them had said: I am a god, I invite you to me, that is, come to me, I am your Lord — Allah would have been blamed. Allah would have been blamed. Not the prophet. On what basis do you say that, Hodja? Did I not just say? He made a covenant with the first created prophets. And I am a witness over you, He said. If He is witness, He gives them those characters in such a way that they never call people to themselves. If He could not give them those characters, Allah would be at fault.

Since until this situation, until this time, no prophet has called people to himself, Allah is perfect in knowledge, and no prophet has called people to himself. And this is Allah's greatness and exaltedness, yes, the power of the art of creation. I suppose it is understood better now, the topics — what

are we saying? The answer to these people: Allah knows best to whom He will give His prophethood. These prophets, by the strong covenants they gave Allah in the beginning — Allah sent them among people as prophets. In this respect, for His prophets, by the verse: no prophet calls people to himself. He shows people that the prophets are true messengers who call people to Allah — this is what He declares. They are true. At the same time, those in objection and in the swamp of kufr — that Allah knows everything, that He is aware of what passes through hearts and of the secrets of all hearts, that He knows everything open and hidden, that He knows what all who will come until the Day of Judgement will do — that they do not know this and could not recognise Allah, this shows.

These people's... These people — what passes through their hearts is not known (?) Allah. When these talk in secret: no one sees us — thinking so, among themselves slyly they talk. Yet (?), it says, and one more than them is Me, among them, it says.

Well, Hodja, on the earth there are billions of people. Today there are four, four and a half billion non-Muslims.

Among them, group after group, perhaps thousands and thousands, there are people who will act in enmity to Islam, draw up plans and projects. Let's say in one night thousands of people draw up plans and projects for enmity to Islam. According to this verse, beside which of them is Allah Almighty?

Since Allah Almighty created the Prophet from a single part of Himself, that is, from a single part of His spirit the Prophet, from his spirit the spirits of the prophets, and from their spirits the spirits of the peoples, since Allah Almighty is the whole spirit, He sends His Being as a messenger wherever He wishes, whenever He wishes. His Being sending His Being.

A messenger. As He appeared to Mary, (?), it says. These are deep parts. Close this. Don't confuse your mind. I wanted to go a little deeper, that's why. It sticks in your mind, I mean. Sometimes the short-witted say: in one place, two places, three places, fine, He is present here, but how is He present in so many places? For example, those who do not know the Quran's verses — what do they say? The Spirit and the angels ascend to a station whose measure is fifty thousand years, it says. They ascend to that station in one day, whose measure is fifty thousand years. The Spirit and the angels — wow.

Yet the angels ascend into the presence of the Spirit, to that station whose measure is fifty thousand years, that is, to that station, into the presence of the Spirit. These do not know who the Spirit is. They say the Spirit is Gabriel. Yet Allah Almighty to Gabriel, Gabriel to Michael, Michael to Israfil, Israfil, it says. Allah's word rests on letters. You cannot (?) it. I say çaldı — it rang, or he stole. What did he steal, Hodja? Did he steal money? A thief, that is. Again I say çaldı, çaldı. What rang, Hodja? The school bell rang. Does it have anything to do with theft? I am asking now. This is Turkish speech. Not Turkish — we call this human speech.

Allah's word does not resemble these. Then you cannot call Gabriel the Spirit. You cannot say the Spirit's name is Gabriel.

Yes. Is that so? Even in Arabic. A grammar — a word means this, means that, means this, means that in Arabic. But its true meaning, by Allah's word, is (?) wisdom. In those of whom He said: to whomever We give knowledge, We give (?) wisdom. They know. Yes.