Al-Anfal 14: This defeat is Allah’s punishment; for now, taste it. There is also the punishment of the hellfire for the blasphemers.

So in the Battle of Badr, with the defeat of the polytheist commanders, Allah Almighty opens the way for Islam, and what does He say to them in the verse? This defeat is Allah's punishment for you. For now, taste it — for now, that is, this punishment in this world, the suffering as far as this world goes. And for the disbelievers there is also the punishment of the Fire of Hell, He says. Look: for the disbelievers, the punishment of the Fire of Hell. So for Muslims there is none. For the disbelievers, He says. Even if Muslims suffer punishment there, for example some of our elders say: well, they will enter the fire there.

They will enter the fire, they will be branded. You know how they brand animals with irons made red-hot in fire; in that way, perhaps not that fire, but they will brand them with those red-hot irons. Perhaps there may be such a punishment, but they will not enter the fire. What is the difference? There is a difference. One is constantly inside the fire, the other is being branded. He endures the branding. Well, to whom does this happen? To those who live outside Allah's command it happens. It is the religion of Islam. For example, today people, in nakedness, are competing. Especially women. They recognize neither Allah, nor Book, nor Prophet.

And indeed, when one reminds them of these, they get uneasy. Within their own nafs-driven feelings they are like a rearing horse. You know, a rearing horse, a bolting horse — how you cannot hold it back — they are in the same state.

Whoever can expose their private parts more nicely is the modern, civilized, enlightened one. These are the ones who will be branded.

People who depart as Muslims but do not fulfil Allah's command.

Yes. May Allah protect us too from such a punishment. Because while a person cannot bear even a small candle flame, or when a small thorn pricks his hand he cannot bear its pain, people living, without thinking of the hereafter, with such thoughts (?) — this is these people taking revenge on their own selves.

Yes, this defeat is Allah's punishment for you. For now, taste it. And for the disbelievers there is also the punishment of the Fire of Hell.

The great number of their armies did not benefit them — the armies that the polytheists of Mecca had gathered. A crowded army, with its self-confidence, eager for the victory it would win on the battlefield, and, to savour that victory there, with pride and grandeur, dreaming of boasting of its victories — instead, the very opposite, through the wound of a great defeat it received, the loss it suffered gave it a punishment to taste. So there is this punishment too. They were going to crush the Muslims there. With confidence in themselves and a craving for greatness, as if they had already (?) won, they were celebrating; but with Allah Almighty's help to the Muslims, their being routed was, of course, a great pain for them.

Moreover, those who depart as disbelievers, who depart, being punished in the hereafter with the Fire of Hell, and this punishment being an endless, unceasing, constant punishment, comes from their denial of Allah and His Messenger. Whoever denies Allah and His Messenger, these people will have wronged their own selves. So if in every human being who has a self there is a mind that knows Allah, and a person does not take the path his mind shows, but continues on the path his nafs and Satan show, this person has committed against his own self the greatest wrong. Man to eat, drink, have intercourse and multiply in this world, to (?) — that is not why he came. Every thing that is made is made for a purpose, we know. At the simplest, tongs are made for holding fire. There are levers, made for lifting a weight.

Cars are made for riding. So every thing has a purpose. The lamps burning up there are also made for a purpose. Man too came into the world for a purpose. Unaware of this, the poor human — unaware of himself, unaware of what he was created for — as if he will never be questioned or called to account by anyone, and in his free thinking, with what his own desires and wishes have shown him, with satanic (?) feelings, he will go on living in pleasure and revelry. Until when? And how long will this thinking go on? And how long will this life go on? And finally — every soul shall taste death, your return is to Me — according to that verse, these people who think this way, had they also thought of death, tomorrow at the (?) Resurrection, an answer to be given before Allah Almighty — since he would (?) it, he would have arranged his affairs in the world accordingly.

But (?), the pride, arrogance, grandeur that the nafs shows to man, fame, glory, ego — with such desires, man recognizes neither Allah nor Prophet; within his own existence, as I just said, like a bolting horse, with an unstoppable feeling, he runs after living his own pleasure and revelry.

Words do not help with these people either. Yes.

He created man honourable — man was created honourable. Allah Almighty says to man: Do you never use your mind? Do you never think, never reflect? Without being aware of where you will go at the end of such a life, living outside Allah's command, following Satan's footsteps, is taking revenge on your own self.

From the situations you will regret tomorrow there will be no return — remembering that time, that is, at that Supreme Court, before Allah Almighty, remembering the questioning you will face, you must arrange your worldly affairs accordingly.

While in this world, man lives for his honour, chastity and dignity. The life of people without honour and chastity is like the life of animals.

They are like the four-legged creatures roaming the earth — they are the people that verse refers to. In form they are human, in nature animal. In that case, man cannot compromise his religion. He cannot compromise his honour, chastity, dignity. Also, in the face of an enemy force, however strong that enemy force may be, without regarding its strength, relying on Allah, he has to stand firm before the enemy; he must. He must persevere. Even if he tastes the drink of death, it is the drink of martyrdom. It is entering among the people whom Allah Almighty will welcome with a smiling face.

That is why, if a person looks at the strength of the enemy before him, gets afraid and retreats, retreats, if a person compromises his religion, he has neither chastity nor honour nor dignity left. Today we see that people who enter many places and take over those lands, saying 'we are reforming them', rape their women, their wives, their daughters. In that case, had those people resisted, to protect their homeland and nation, their chastity, their religion — had they resisted, would one who is with Allah be left alone? In the Battle of Gallipoli, our soldiers, that is, our ancestors, until a single man was left, did not withdraw from before the enemy. And that single man too, that single man too, thinking the enemy would come from behind, thinking a relief force would come, desperately held out against the enemy.

And they too were martyred there. And in the end they handed us a homeland. In the end, it did not fall into captivity. Likewise in the Battle of Badr, Allah Almighty helped the religion of Islam; that enemy force's great numbers did not bring them any benefit.