Al-Anfal 65: Oh Prophet! Encourage the mu’min (believers) for battle. If there are twenty among you who are patient, they will be victorious over two hundred infidels. And if there are a hundred among you, they will be victorious over a thousand infidels. This is because they (the infidels) are people who do not comprehend.

Yes. We have come to verse 65 of Surah Al-Anfal.

O Prophet! Urge the believers to fight. To fight.

If there are twenty patient ones among you, twenty people,

they will overcome 200, two hundred disbelievers. One to ten. One to ten. Now pay attention to how the verses come. What did it say? In the first, He strengthened the hearts of the believers. You could not have strengthened them, it says. In the second, those who are with the believer, no one can overpower, it says. And in this verse, one believer is worth ten disbelievers, it says. Then this He will lower, lower it to three. Why? Allah Almighty will spread His religion. With His religion He will help the Prophet. With the verse "Inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-Islâm", all those books He will gather in the Quran.

In Allah's sight, apart from the Holy Quran, the religious ruling, the word of testimony, no ideology and nothing called religion will remain. It will disappear. Because all religions are upon the religion of Islam. And that is in the Quran. If it says "Inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-Islâm", then in the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, those who lived in that time and followed them are upon the (?) of Islam. Those who follow them have also united with the Quran. Again they are upon the religion of Islam. Apart from this, those who leave the religion of Islam, since there is no such religion, those who call their own ideologies religion and pin them on Allah: these are in the darkness of shirk, in the darkness of kufr, people who live deifying their own nafs.

Apart from these, those who obey Allah and His Messenger, who recognize all prophets as prophets, who believe that all the books it calls the People of the Book came from Allah — People of the Book, the Torah, (?) and the Gospel — that the Quran came from Allah, and who submit to it: these are the people within the verse "Inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-Islâm". In this case, believing people, the believers, are those wholeheartedly bound to Allah.

Here it gives one to ten, because the believers will spread. Allah will make His religion, Islam, heard in the world. He will break the strong arms of the disbelievers and will make Islam prevail. A handful of Islam — would Allah Almighty set a handful of Islam against thousands of people and let it be broken? Well, what will happen? According to the verse "Who is more true to His word than Allah?", for the believers Allah will suffice. Allah will prove His Being outwardly (?) to every eye that sees. That is how He will prove Allah's existence, that there is no god but Allah, that their worshipping idols, calling them gods and asking help from the gods, is of no use to them at all — this is how He will prove it.

Worth ten people. And Allah is with the believers; come on, (?) now, let you have millions of people.

Let you have superior equipment. But (?).

As this spreads further, as it spreads, as the (?) Muslims increase, since Allah Almighty will hold every soul to account for its own deeds, He lowers these to one to three. To three.

Here there is both an outer meaning and an inner meaning. In the outer meaning, Allah Almighty's helping the believers with strength. This is the outer meaning. The inner meaning, though, is a believer's mind working more, while the disbeliever, with certain limited minds, with selfish feelings, confines himself within a certain world; so a Muslim's deceiving the ten enemies facing him and overcoming them comes about through his mind. Well, Hodja, today technology is in their hands. If they weren't intelligent, could they do this? if you say: it is not that they found it with their intelligence.

It is through their work. That is one. Allah gives to the one who works. To the one who works. Besides, most of that technology was discovered by Muslims. Children of Muslims. Exactly. Just as Hazrat Fatih did. As he founded the Janissary Corps.

He would take foreign children when small, educate them, make them Muslim, and to the Janissary Corps bring them. These people likewise gather people with advanced intelligence in technology from around the world and make them work for themselves.

Yes.

Therefore a person shall not fall short in observing Allah's commands. What does it say? O Prophet, urge the believers to fight. If there are twenty patient ones among you, they will overcome two hundred disbelievers. If there are a hundred of you, they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve. Because they are a people who do not understand. There you go. Who do not understand. Look, that is precisely its meaning. Who cannot grasp, who do not work; whereas the Muslim's horizon is open with what his Lord is. His horizon. Yes. Whereas the others live their world within the circle of ignorance.

What is this? Living within the circle of ignorance, that narrowness of horizon. One, attachment to the world. Attachment to the world. Two, even if I gave him the world's wealth, not being satisfied, being stingy and not parting from it. Three, clinging to the world with this pleasure, being attached to the world as if he would never die. Four, loving his life very much. These traits do not urge this person to fight, and within that love of property, fear for his life and worldly desire, that person cannot develop his mind and find another way out. That is a people who do not understand. The Muslim, however, knows that all the treasures of the heavens and the earth belong to Allah, that every soul will taste death, that the heavens and the earth and what is between them will remain to Allah, that their inheritance will remain to Allah.

He submits to Allah with his life. Saying, if I become a martyr I will attain my Lord's smiling welcome in the hereafter, sir, and thinking of his high place in paradise, he goes at that enemy in a planned, projected way and with sound reason. And thereupon he makes them few.

War is a game. A game. Whoever manages the game better prevails.

Because the Muslim's mind works more, he prevails in the games of war.

And sometimes, if the games are equal, if equal, and they have more strength, then through Islam's light of faith and its attacking, facing death, the person opposite for Allah's sake, that is when the other side's strength is broken.

By the Muslim's light of faith. Again Islam wins.

But it must be within these feelings. We see that those with these feelings wrote epics in wars. We also see Allah's help. With the martyrs. Yes. O Prophet, urge the believers to fight. If there are twenty patient ones among you, they will overcome 200 disbelievers. If there are 100 of you, they will overcome 1000 of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand. In the later verses — "Hodja, there it said ten people, here it lowered it to three" — so that you would not say that, I have opened this verse with such broad commentary. Because then we said: to open the way for people, to open the way for Islam, so as not to let a few Muslims be broken by many disbelievers, Allah Almighty, against those idolaters who do not understand, within their own feelings, that is, within their beliefs, made them weak; in this case He tells of their state.

We will open it up for you again in the following verses, God willing. In the verse where He says "O Prophet, urge the believers to fight", Allah, who does not want lives to be taken unjustly, who does not want them taken, and who says that whoever saves one life is as if he saved the others — when He says here, urge the believers to fight, this fight means: the religion of Islam, which removes injustice on earth and spreads Allah's justice on earth — make it known and spread it. That is, make it known and spread it. These are events from the time of the Prophet. You cannot say this belongs to the past.

Even though it happened in the Prophet's time, even though it did, these events appear from time to time until the Day of Judgment too. Because the verse of Allah Almighty will continue until the Day of Judgment. For example, Tahsin Yazıcı, whom I gave as an example a moment ago, in the Korean War, breaking through a sevenfold encirclement with a handful of soldiers, Allah helping him. Yes, in such situations Allah Almighty will help them until the Day of Judgment too. Allah's verses are valid for every age.

In the verse, too, the believers are meant. It says: urge the believers to fight. Look, it does not say urge Islam to fight. The believers are one thing, Islam another, those who have believed another. Believers are people who have reached a certain rank, bound to Allah and His Messenger, possessing knowledge. Even if they have no knowledge, they are people who live Islam with Islamic feelings and thoughts, who will be examples to people by their conduct and by their words. Urge them to spread, with these people, the religion of Islam, Allah's justice, on earth, so that, according to the verse in which We say We call no one to account (?), no one remains on earth who has not heard of the religion of Islam.

Yes.

Beside falsehood, let truth and justice shine like the sun, He commands. Also, since Allah Almighty's word addresses the outward too, during a war let him urge the believers to fight. As they continue fighting with patience, let Muslims whose faith is weak also look at them and stand firm in war. Let them not retreat by showing (?) before the enemy. Now, addressing the believers, the believers: those who pledged allegiance to the Prophet, these are the Ashab-i Kiram and the Sahaba-i Kiram. All of them are believers.

The Sahaba are believers too. The Ashab-i Kiram are believers too. The Ashab-i Kiram are those who were around the Prophet. The Sahaba are people who entered the religion of Islam and pledged allegiance to the Prophet, coming from other countries.

What is the difference between them? There is only one difference. One is beside the Prophet, the other in other (?). Is there another difference? No. There is a point where all of them unite. In his Ashab, in his Sahaba. The point where they all unite: as soon as they pledged allegiance to the Prophet, they would be honored with the Beauty of Allah Almighty. These are the Sahaba. All of them are Sahaba. The Ashab-i Kiram are Sahaba too. The Ashab-i Kiram, because they were beside the Prophet, were also given the name Ashab. In this case, there are Sahaba until the Day of Judgment too.

Dry minds — look, I always say it, I call them superstitions, superstitions. Within a baseless circle of ignorance, without proof, by the words of this one and that one passing judgment, poor people who talk outside the verses — superstitions. If the Sahabi who pledged allegiance to the Prophet, as a result of his allegiance was honored with Allah Almighty's Beauty, if he took the title Sahaba — even though the Prophet is alive, and alive, you cannot call him otherwise — then people who will come until the Day of Judgment, when they are honored with the Beauty of Allah Almighty, they too receive the title Sahaba.

Sahaba. Now they will say about me, this man has gone astray, with the saying: a Sahabi is a person who lived in the time of the Prophet. In the Prophet's time these Jahls, these Lahabs also lived; were they Sahaba too? There were so many idolaters; were they Sahaba too? Based on what reason, on what knowledge, do you call Sahaba one who in the Prophet's time lived? So those who took the hand of the Prophet and entered Islam, for the sake of the Prophet, instantly, that night, in a spiritual state, would be honored with the Beauty of Allah Almighty. These are the believers and the Sahaba. Believers.

Until the Day of Judgment such Ashab-i Kiram will come. (?) Sahaba-i Kiram will come. Sahaba-i Kiram. Because, even though the Sahaba lived in that time, Allah Almighty makes no distinction among people.

There are such people in our time who are like those Sahaba. They are like the Sahaba. If I were to say to those people with that wrong thinking something like this, I wonder what he would say to it?

Does Allah Almighty have righteous servants? Yes. Does Allah Almighty have scholars He has raised? Yes. Does a mujtahid come every 100 years? He does. Does a Qutb (?) come every two hundred years? He does. If these are mujtahids in religion, if they remove falsehoods from religion, if Allah Himself raised them, by that reckoning, between those Sahaba-i Kiram and this person, what difference is there? Come on, you tell me the difference.

There is no difference. He saw the Beauty of his Lord. This one also saw the Beauty of his Lord. The goal was to see the Owner, to find Him. After that there is no going back; then, with knowledge, our Lord, in proportion to that person's wish, according to his rank — not "He chose" and so on, mind you, as they say about the verse, they explained it all wrong: Allah chose this one, chose that one. According to his rank, with truth and justice, His giving him the duty: that is the Sahaba. Yes, with (?) minds, people by hearsay from one another, by superstitions, have passed judgment. Because people do not have this knowledge I have described.

Because people are given over to their nafs, people who act on the path their nafs shows, and to whom Allah's verses, even if they have faith, are hard,

people who, when left on their own, do what their nafs says.

What are we saying? Also, since Allah Almighty's word addresses the outward too, during a war, urge the believers to fight, so that as they keep fighting with patience, Muslims whose faith is weak also look at them and stand firm in war. Let them not retreat by showing (?) before the enemy.

So, pointing to this situation, in the verse's continuation: if there are twenty patient ones among you, they will overcome 200 disbelievers; if there are 100 of you, they will overcome 1000 of those who disbelieve, He says. So Muslims who keep fighting with patience in war are in a position, one against 10 people, to prevail. The reason is that, with the light of faith Allah placed in Islam's heart, they work out the enemy forces' weak side and weaknesses and act accordingly.

Again, in the continuation of the same verse, when it says "because they are a people who do not understand", it makes known that, with this feeling full of rancor and hatred, without Allah's light in the heart, people's minds do not work, that through selfish behavior people will constantly make mistakes. For this reason He says one Muslim is worth ten disbelievers. And in a verse where He says they fight only behind strong fortresses, in that verse Allah Almighty says that these people fight only from behind strong weapons, and that when they come face to face with people they will not be able to fight.

Yes, when they come face to face with people they cannot fight; they surrender at once. Just one or two thrusts and that's it. What are we saying? So, in the sixtieth verse of Surah Al-Anfal that we covered: against them, the enemies, as much force as you can, and horses tied and kept for jihad, prepare. With it you will frighten Allah's enemy, your enemy, and others besides them whom you do not know but Allah knows, enemy people. That is, it declares that Islam too should have weapons and equipment superior to theirs, and against those who would act unjustly and oppressively on earth should apply the justice of truth.

In this way Allah Almighty commands that the earth be cleansed of fitna and oppression. He wants fitna and oppression removed from the earth. Allah Almighty loves His servants very much, even if they are disbelievers. Whoever rules with justice, Allah helps them. Even if they are disbelievers, if they rule with Allah's justice, even if disbelievers, He helps them. But all the good work they have done, if they passed on to the hereafter as disbelievers, has gone for nothing.