Al-Anfal 40: If they turn away (from belief), know that Allah is your Owner. What a good Owner and what a good Helper Allah is!

Of Surah Al-Anfal, we have come to verse 40. If they turn away from faith, know that Allah is your Master. What an excellent Master and what an excellent Helper He is. If they turn away from faith — however much you turn away, however stubborn you are, however much you rebel, however much you try to prove that Allah does not exist, what does He say? Allah is your Master. O man, you will not escape Him. You will not escape that Master. One day He will call you to account. There is no escape from Him. Look, He says "your Master." Then, then you will see the recompense of what you did. If you behaved well, He will give you the gardens He promised you as a reward.

Who is more faithful to his word than Allah? That is precisely the verse. Yes. But whoever deifies his own nafs and in the world lives irresponsibly, does not recognize Allah and His Messenger, strives to abolish the religion of Islam, lives by his own false beliefs and, without giving thanks for what Allah gave, associates partners with Him and lives within a world of shirk — for him too, "Who is more faithful to his word than Allah" — in accordance with that verse, he seeks one of the pits of Hell, the place He calls "what an evil place of return," the place He calls "what an evil bed." Yes.

What does He say? If they turn away from faith, know that Allah is your Master. What an excellent Master and what an excellent Helper He is. If those who persist in fitna and denial, after peace and faith, again turn away from Allah and His Messenger, these are people who have moved away from Allah and are deprived of Allah's mercy. A person who is deprived and bereft of Allah's mercy then has neither a helper nor an intercessor. These people have wronged their own souls, and they have taken revenge on themselves. "Hodja, does a person take revenge on himself?" Yes. (?) "Today," He says. Today.

Which day is that? Look, on the Greatest Day. Eleysallahu bi-ahkemi'l-hakimin — Allah, the Judge of judges, in the presence of our Lord: today, so that no one is wronged, what everyone earned, in full, as the return of his own two hands, will be given to him — according to that verse, with the deeds you yourself have done, isn't it you taking revenge on your own nafs? What is it like? What is it like? You take a dagger and press it to your breast. Maybe you die in this world, but there there is no death. So you stab yourself, beat yourself, shoot yourself, and subject yourself to torment, and on yourself, on your own nafs, you have taken revenge.

I say: O man, use your reason, your reason. Think of your future; in the world you do think of your future. You know what work you will do tomorrow, where you will go, what trade you will be busy with; if you are a civil servant, you know your duty, that you'll go to your office on time. You think beyond that too. When you get (?), I will pay my debt here, I will pay my installment there, or I will save this. Then you think even further ahead. If I retire, I will get a bonus; with that bonus I'll go here, I'll go there. If Allah has given you life, you prepare such plans for your future. O man, since you prepare so many plans for this passing world, are you also preparing plans for the eternal abode of bliss, the realm of the hereafter?

Do you have a plan for there? Say this for there too: I will not take revenge on my nafs. On the path my Lord showed me, I will give up what my nafs enjoys. I will be occupied with the worship of Allah. Knowing my responsibility in the world, I will both work for the world, fulfill the responsibility given to me, fulfill my worldly responsibility, and alongside this I will never compromise on my Lord. Because this world is temporary; here we are in a guesthouse. Tomorrow, when the journey begins, to my true homeland I will return, go back. So that I can be at ease in that true homeland, I must earn a lot here, you will say.

This place is a marketplace: earn here, rest there. Just as a person works while young and prepares a place for his old age, prepares a foundation for himself, you too prepare a foundation for the hereafter, your true homeland. In the world you make such fine plans and projects for your future. But for our true homeland we have no plans or projects at all.

Yes.

So a person who is deprived and bereft of Allah's mercy then has neither a helper nor an intercessor. These people have wronged their own souls. On the Day of Judgment, Allah Almighty says: My mercy is for everyone in the universe, in the hereafter for the believer. For the believer. The believers are those whose reckoning is done quickly and who go to Paradise. Yes. So the people from whom Allah has lifted His mercy are there all alone and without anyone. Obedience and worship — as for the Muslims who continue in them and submit to Allah from the heart, Allah is their Master. If Allah takes a person as His own, then he can never be brought down. Here "Master" is the Master in the realm of the hereafter; the other is the Master over all that is in the world, because they are all Allah's creatures. And all souls (?) — since He says "your return is to Me" and there is no one else, He is the Master of all. Here it is the Master in the hereafter, that Master of the believer, of the believers.

That is, in accordance with the verse in which He says "My mercy is for everyone in the universe, in the hereafter only for the believer," this is a second matter. As for the Muslims who continue in obedience and worship and submit to Allah from the heart, Allah is their Master. If Allah takes a person as His own, he can never be brought down. Because Allah is both the helper and the guardian of those who obey Him and believe in Him. These people — in this world and the hereafter, such people, those who earn Allah's mercy — how blessed are those people. One (?), in a couplet of his, says this: Everyone has someone; I have no one at all.

O Someone of all someones, be my someone, he says. And as I say this, my eyes fill with tears. Yes, everyone in the world, he says, has a mother, a father, an uncle, an aunt, an aunt, an uncle, whatever. Relatives and kin, someone to take refuge in, someone he trusts, he says. I have no one like that, he says.

O Master of masters, in that case, be my Master, he says. Yes.

The meaning here: in the world everyone has a relative and someone to look after him. But I have no one at all. That is, this man did not come out of a cave, you know; (?) he too has a relative, a wife, friends, kin. But he knew that the Master of them all is Allah, entrusted all of them to Him, and submitted himself to Him as well — such a person. Since Allah is the Master of them all, without taking into account their care for him in the world, he says: I have no master but You. O Master of masters, be my Master — saying this, he expresses in words how beautifully he has submitted to Allah.