Al-Anfal 39: Fight with them until mischief has vanished and until religion is only Allah’s. If they end (their disbelief), Allah sees what they are doing very well.

Surah Al-Anfal, verse 39: Fight them until fitna ceases and the religion is entirely Allah's. If they cease their denial, surely Allah sees very well what they do. The fire of fitna is worse than killing. For a person gets angry and kills one man, two men, three, five, ten men. But fitna, like a fire disaster, sweeps everyone away, sparing neither women nor children. That is the fitna, He says, that you must remove. The fitna.

Allah Almighty, holding a light before people with His verses, gives them life.

Among people, fitna is worse than a murderer. Once the fire of fitna starts burning, just as it sets people against one another, it also sets states against one another, bringing about the deaths of millions of innocent people. Worse than this is the fitna of enmity toward Allah and His Messenger. It is the fitna of abolishing the religion of Islam. To spread this fitna is first to distance people from their religion, then to spread immorality, then, with every kind of evil, to distance people from their own selves, to strip them of their humanity, and to bring a state under their captivity. Then, (?) according to the verse, from the religion of Islam, by leaving it, by making them resemble themselves, making people, Muslims too, resemble themselves, and they are trying to resemble them, Allah separates the filthy, like a heap of carrion, from the clean on that day of gathering, Allah Almighty.

On that day of gathering — pay attention to the earlier verse, together with the verses one or two back, what it says after this: what does it say? O man, come to your senses! Whoever resembles them is like them, according to the verse; if you are with those carcasses, with those filthy ones, if you are, if you join hands with them to abolish the religion of Islam — "Who is joining hands, Hodja? I am a Muslim. I would never give up my faith." If today you compete with them in nakedness, if you bring about every kind of immorality, if you deify your nafs and forget Allah, and wherever Allah is mentioned, fall into distress, did you conform to them, or did they conform to you?

Yes, and if you follow their path, this is a fire of fitna, and it spreads ever further. That is why He says: stop them; if not with your hand, if not with your tongue, He says, if you cannot reach, detest it, He says. And this, he says, is the weakest point of faith, he says. I do not agree with this. I do not agree with this. That faith, with that detesting, is at its weakest point — I do not agree with that. Why do I not agree? Well, today my hand cannot reach; look, they go around in filth, now they even walk around in swimsuits. My hand cannot reach, and with my tongue I cannot say it anyway; I say it all right, but whom will I reach?

I detest them. Is this now the weakest point of my faith? Yes, I do not agree with this. With your hand or with your tongue, and if not, detest it in your heart; that's all. No — supposedly the heart is the weakest point of faith. If a man does not consent to that filth, can this be the weakest point of faith? So a person is to be with his nafs, with that filth, and be a Muslim too, be a Muslim and commit adultery too, do every filth, live with the weakest point of faith — and count me together with him. It is all made up.

If not with your hand, if not with your tongue, if you cannot reach, do not follow them, He says. Do not follow. Step aside. Yes.

Poor people: while saying these things, they themselves, more than these people, lean toward them. If we told him, "You are the weakest point of faith," he would make a fuss. But he himself leans toward them more than other people do.

When a person says something, he should measure it against himself.

Yes, it is the fitna of abolishing the religion of Islam. To spread this fitna is first to distance people from their religion, then to spread immorality, then, with every kind of evil, distancing people from their own selves, to strip them of their humanity and bring a state under captivity.

In this situation, people must not compromise their beliefs. Their beliefs. People. For Allah and His Messenger, to remove immorality and fitna, they must unite and fight these until the religion is Allah's. By removing immorality and oppression on earth, they must spread Allah's justice. Allah's justice.

This verse brings Kanuni to my mind. Kanuni. Kanuni Sultan Suleiman. From France a traveler comes. He says to Kanuni, "My Sultan, in France a game has been invented; women and men play it together, and they call it dance," he says. Kanuni takes paper and pen in hand, and probably (?), "Your Majesty," he says. "I have heard that in your country a game played by women and men has been invented, and it is called dance. Since we share a border, I fear this immorality will spread to us too. This game — abolish it if you will; if you do not, I will come and abolish it," he says. O (?) people, look, this is fitna, the fire of fitna. Yes. Such people lived. They were human, and we are human too.

When they meet Allah's mercy, on the Day of Judgment, if you say, "My Allah, I too did my worship, but how well You received them, what beautiful places You put them in," — with their feelings, with their way of life, with their longing for Allah, do you have the same feeling? Were you weighed on the same scale of faith? Were your faiths equal? Well, if they were equal, Allah does no injustice. Allah is the very Truth. Yes.

In this situation, people must not compromise their beliefs. For Allah and the Messenger, to remove immorality and fitna, they must unite and fight these until the religion is Allah's. By removing immorality and oppression from the earth, they must spread Allah's justice. Allah Almighty, in both of His words, says: spread truth and justice on earth, He says. Truth and justice, there. How beautiful. If those who spread this fitna, who oppress unjustly, give up denying Allah and His Messenger, surely Allah sees very well what they do. He forgives and pardons them. Every human errs. There is no human without fault.

"Hodja, you said the prophets are sinless. Now you said people are fallible. You said there is no human without fault.

In that case, don't your words contradict each other?" They do not.

My saying "they do not" did not satisfy me. I will explain. We will explain it with verses.

Allah Almighty did not create a being equal to His essence. He limited human minds. So that man, within this capacity of reason, could turn to the truth, he needed Allah's (?), His verses, His command. In this case, those who worship Allah Almighty, or those who turn to Him, or who do not, commit errors in proportion to their reason. If they turn to Allah, they are forgiven. But you may say the prophets are of course an exception to this. They are sinless, after all — they too commit sins. They too commit sins.

Yes. The Prophet (peace be upon him), who came as a mercy to the worlds. Yes.

In the second verse of Surah Al-Fath, "We to you" — in the first verse, we read it. "We have granted you (?) a conquest. So that Allah may forgive your past and future sins." What was it? He forgives your past and future sins. Toward whom? Now, is there an error in Allah Almighty's word? He sent a mercy to the worlds. He sent him to perfect good character. Well, in that case, if he has past and future sins — but he came as a mercy to the worlds, he came to perfect good character — now, didn't these words contradict each other? They did not. Why? Toward the worlds he is complete, complete toward the worlds, and his good character is complete too.

For they asked about his character — what was it? They say: the character of the Quran. But toward Allah Almighty, deficient and faulty. All people, under the rule of the nafs; even if a person rules over his nafs and rises to the summit, he is still faulty. What errors he commits toward Allah. Deficient and faulty. That is why, what do we say here?

On earth, by removing immorality and oppression, they must spread Allah's justice.

In this case, people, to Allah Almighty, on the Day of Judgment, will be able to say, "You gave that person this, why did You not give me that?" Because every person, within his own covenant, while living his own actual deeds, is ranked degree by degree. There is gold of 18 carats, 20 carats, 22 carats, 24 carats. All carats. The religion of Islam too is graded like gold. Nafs-i emmare, nafs-i levvame, nafs-i mülhime, nafs-i mutmainne, but still gold. Why? The nafs-i emmare does every kind of evil, right? Still, it is gold. Why? An honor in the religion of Islam. He says, La ilahe illallah, Muhammedün Resulullah.

He is a sinner. I mean, there is gold in him, that gold essence, gold essence, but it has fallen into the mud. Its surface is covered with mud. You see, he takes his sin to be mud. But its essence is gold. By saying La ilahe illallah Muhammedün Resulullah, its essence is gold. All others are filth and impurity worse than mud. Yes.

"What are you saying?" you ask. They must fight these, by removing immorality and oppression on earth spread Allah's justice. If those who spread this fitna, who oppress unjustly, give up denying Allah and His Messenger, surely Allah sees very well what they do. He forgives and pardons them. If Allah were detached from His creatures, He would be unaware of their states and movements, and could not govern His creatures (?). There is not a single (?) created in the universe that Allah is not aware of. Therefore every soul, in return for the deeds it has done with intention against itself, will be called to account.

That is why Allah is the One who knows and sees His creatures very well.