Al-A'raf 153: For those who repent after they have committed bad deeds, verily, after repentance and faith, your Lord is Ghafoor (Forgiving) and Raheem (the One who very generously accepts repentance).

Surah Al-A'raf, verse 153. As for those who, after doing evil deeds, then repent, repent and believe: surely after that repentance and faith your Lord is indeed Forgiving and Merciful, it says. Now, he has done evil, then he has repented. From his faith. From his faith, mind you. After repentance and faith, it says. After faith. He has believed. He has repented. His Lord, surely, (?). Why? Because He created people in helplessness. That is, He created them deficient. That is, deficient in intellect. Because of being created deficient in intellect, people err.

They can be carried away by the desires of the nafs. They can get stuck on wrong paths. In this case, people who, seeing the truth, again with faith — that is, believing in the heart that there is no god but Allah, believing that the prophets are true messengers sent by Allah, believing that all the verses He sent are Allah's word and true, believing and affirming in the heart and professing with the tongue — give up the evils they did and turn in repentance and seeking forgiveness, Allah surely forgives them, He will forgive. Why? Because He created people fallible, since He created them deficient in intellect.

He will err, know his helplessness, and turn to Allah in repentance and seeking forgiveness. But this does not mean I may knowingly do wrong. That is different. That falls under (?). For example, I went and made a mistake. I thought it was right. This, this here is a glass. I thought it was a bowl. I looked and saw it was not a bowl but a glass. What is this? Because of our being created deficient in intellect, I knew this glass as a bowl. But it was not a bowl, it was a glass. Fine. 'O Allah, until now I knew this like this. I have given it up. I have repented. I take refuge in You.' That is fine. The second: this glass.

Then I fell into doubt about the glass. I said this is a bowl, I fell into doubt, I was deceived, or I saw it as a bowl. Later I looked and saw: oh, this is not a bowl, it truly is a glass, I was mistaken. Again I turned and took refuge in Allah — ah, these were by mistake. In such error, because people are created deficient, what they know as right they may know wrongly. In this case, when, with repentance and seeking forgiveness, they turn at once from what they knew wrongly to the right, they find that Allah Almighty forgives much and, under His mercy, is forgiving. Not: 'Allah is forgiving; fine, do whatever you like, I'll repent anyway at some point, and Allah will forgive.' This long hope falls into shirk.

What is long hope? It is imagining the future, 'I will do this and that' — your saying that. Whereas, as to whether Allah's decree will come one second later or not, do you have in hand any proof?

Some thoughts that you would describe as long hope drag you into shirk. 'Long hope is shirk,' it says. Long hope. Yes. In this case, no person, no person may indulge in long hope. 'But Hodja, we say about the future: tomorrow we'll meet with you.' We say that, don't we — when we say 'tomorrow we're meeting you, we'll meet', with hope we also say inshallah. That is, we say 'if Allah permits'. 'If Satan makes you forget to say inshallah, say when you remember: perhaps Allah, at a time nearer than this, will grant us our wish, our desire,' it says. So we must also say inshallah. For our meeting (?) in the future, or for a task we will do.

If we don't do this — as I said just now — 'let's do it, let's do it, we'll repent anyway, Allah will forgive us' — when we say that, this long hope leads to shirk. Also, you commit a sin. (?)

A person goes astray and does evil. He sees that the evils he did lead nowhere and that the path he took is no path. If he repents and takes refuge in Allah, he will find Allah, Allah Almighty, very merciful and forgiving. Among this people, too, after knowing Allah, there were those who changed their path and worshipped the calf. Then, realising this was not a good thing, they repented. So Allah Almighty, telling us that these people's repentance, their repentance, was accepted, with this verse has given a fine example to the people who will come until the Day of Judgement — as I explained just now.

They knew that Allah is Allah. Then they were deceived and worshipped the calf. Then they saw again that the calf truly was a mere mass. They turned to Allah again. Look: after something done unknowingly, a return again to something done knowingly. That is, their returning again to the oneness of Allah. Yes.

As people walk, swim, in the swamp of sin they have entered, among them there arise those who want to cleanse themselves. But their friends do not let them go. And these people who want to cleanse themselves, over their friends' feelings, somehow cannot return to the truth. In this situation a person, thinking of the reward he will receive with Allah, weighs the love of Allah against that of those around him. If the love of Allah weighs more, he leaves his friends. He turns to Allah. Otherwise he goes rolling in the swamp.

For example, a person gets someone used to gambling, gets him used to drink; he loves his friend very much: 'Come on, let's go.' 'Eh,' he says, 'let's go' — to drink, to drinking — eh, he can't refuse him. And not going is hard on his own nafs too, so in this situation he follows his friend and goes. In this situation a person must weigh the love of Allah against the love of his friend. In the sight of Allah Almighty, who will call me to account tomorrow (?), if I follow my friend so as not to hurt his feelings, if I abandon Allah's command upon me, what kind of love of Allah is this? he will say to himself.

Then, if the person thinks about this, he will say to his friend: 'Friend, the path we are taking is wrong. Our Lord has made this forbidden to us, it is forbidden. In this situation, if I asked you, if I said, do you love Allah? you would say, I love Him very much. Well then, if you say you love Allah very much, and this drink Allah has forbidden you make a habit of your nafs and, without denying your nafs anything, you chase after it, if you put Allah's command upon you behind you, what kind of love of Allah is this?' — if you said that and warned him too, would it not be better? Both of you would turn back from that path together.

Yes.

In every task, in every task we do, we will remember Allah. Whenever we speak, in every word of ours, we will remember Allah. 'Hodja, how can that be? Is that possible?' There is a verse, isn't there — what does it say?

'I have such servants that neither buying and selling nor trade keeps them from remembering Me,' it says. That is: remembering Allah whenever you speak, speaking according to the verses, in every task you do, remembering Allah and doing it properly, in every purchase you make, watching for halal and haram — if you act thinking of Allah's command upon you, then at every moment you will have remembered your Lord. Allah Almighty, for His essence, does not say: My attributes you must invoke with your tongue. This too is a dhikr. You are always thinking of Allah. And it will come until the Day of Judgement.

These exist. In this case. Those people convey the truth to people. Yes.