At-Tawbah 2: Oh idolaters! Wander on earth for four more months. Know that you will not incapacitate Allah. But Allah will humiliate the infidels.

Now comes the second verse of Surah At-Tawbah. O polytheists! Travel about the earth for four more months. Know well that you cannot render Allah helpless. And Allah will disgrace and ruin the disbelievers, it says. Yes. Their disgrace and ruin both in this world and in the hereafter. Hodja, how does this happen in this world? These guys eat, drink, travel around. They have loads of money. They have everything.

Since to you, how man — created lovable and honourable — should live has been made known by Allah Almighty, those people who live outside of this are both dishonourable and disgraceful. Both dishonourable and disgraceful. They feel no protective jealousy over their wives.

1. They compete in drinking, gambling and fornication. 2. 3. They lead the way in lying. 4. Before their craving for the world, their eyes see nothing; they deify not Allah but the world. These are people who, for the paltry pennies' worth of benefit the world will provide them, hand over even their wife, their daughter to the person in front of them. If these are not thieves, not dishonourable, what are they?

Yes.

That is why: if man was created honourable above the worlds — even among animals, among animals, until death there are birds that live with a single mate; among animals it lives with one mate until death and is jealous over its mate; (?) while an animal is an animal — if that animal does its duty with those characteristics Allah has inscribed in it, if He has placed partial free will in man's own hands, and with man's (?) actual deeds, the judgments he will make, Allah Almighty has left man subject to the matter of reward and sin; if this man, within his own will, was created as the most honourable of created beings, if man was sent to earth as the vicegerent of the earth too — of people who live more vilely than animals, the human form, you think about it. In form they are human; in character, viler than animals.

Allah Almighty says in His verse: they are like four-legged beasts roaming the earth, and in their way even more, He says, astray. Yes.

Such people.

So man must know his place. Man is created honourable above the worlds. Man is the one Allah Almighty addresses. He has sent His word only to man. He has given man his partial will. In this case, if this man, created as the noblest of creatures, opposes Allah's commands and prohibitions, deifies his nafs, turns his back on Allah, is ungrateful for the provision He has given, in the hereafter they are without anyone and alone, He says. His mercy in the universe is for everyone; Allah Almighty does not (?) among His servants. Never, in this life, saying "you are a disbeliever, you are a Muslim, I will show you favouritism" — you cannot find such injustice in Allah.

Even the world, He says, I have shared out equally among you. So if in this world a person, through his own deeds, proves himself to Allah Almighty, on the Day of Judgment — can one who works and one who does not be alike? He says.

His mercy in the universe is for everyone; in the hereafter only for the believer. Because in the world, too, he knew his Lord. He submitted to Him. He held fast to His commands and prohibitions and said "Allah"; in this guesthouse of the transient world, winning his Lord's pleasure, he passed on to the hereafter. The former, who won his Lord's pleasure, and the one who rebelled against Him, that polytheist non-Muslim, will surely, within Allah's justice, be separated. This is the Day of Separation, He says. The Day of Separation. At the Great Tribunal. On that day, He says, some faces will shine brightly.

And some faces, He says, will be darkened.

Yes. Say: may Allah Almighty make us among those brightly shining faces, those faces.

Yes. O polytheists! Travel about the earth for four more months. Know well that you cannot render Allah helpless. And Allah will disgrace and ruin the disbelievers. Allah Almighty has forbidden waging war in the sacred months. But if Muslims come under attack, they may fight in self-defence.

These sacred months, starting from (?) day, last until after the 10th of the month of Rabi' al-Akhir. This period is called Ashhur al-Hurum. Fighting in these months is forbidden. This period consists of the last twenty days of Dhu al-Hijjah, the months of Muharram, Safar and Rabi' al-Awwal, and the first ten days of Rabi' al-Akhir. During this period, travel about safe from the Muslims, it says to the disbelievers. Travel about safe from the Muslims. Know well that you cannot render Allah helpless. Earlier, in (?), by (?) Allah, although you knew Allah was the Creator, you denied Him. Allah, however, gave people a chance.

He sent them to a realm where His Self is not seen. This realm is the realm of this world, which is the realm of the unseen. There He clothed people in flesh and bone and gave them an outward appearance. So the people coming into this world were, in such a way that they cannot go beyond Allah's power, programmed. Again, programmed so that they cannot put out Allah's light, every soul, in the realm of this world, living its obedient or rebellious state towards Allah Almighty in proportion to its wish, will have itself — before Allah Almighty — itself and its surroundings bear witness. When it passes on to the hereafter, on that day of reckoning it will have no question left to ask Allah. Because Allah has the attribute of being Allah.

Allah's attribute of being Allah is this: No one will be able to put a question or query to Allah Almighty. The reason: for every question he would ask, he will see that it was brought about by his own deeds, and will be left without a question. Yes. In return for what he earned, he will be sent to the place he deserves. Know this well: in this respect, no force or power can render Allah helpless, and no one can overpower Him. And Allah will disgrace and ruin the disbelievers. No force or power can stand against Allah. Yes.

Unable to stand against Him — surely Allah, with His attribute of justice, as the Judge of judges, without wronging any soul, will give each soul, in return for what it earned, the place they deserve. What does Allah Almighty say? Today, so that no one is wronged, everyone will, in return for what his own two hands earned, in full be paid.

that means, if I commit a crime, appear before the laws of the state, and the judge, according to my crime, sends me to prison, did the judge send me to prison, or did I send myself to prison? So in this world, those who rise up against Allah, who do not recognize Allah's commands and prohibitions, when they commit crimes, Allah Almighty — "Eleysallâhu bi-ahkemi'l-hâkimîn" — as the Judge of judges, without anyone being wronged, when to each what he earned with his own two hands is given in full, when he is found guilty and pushed into hell, when he lives the eternal life of hell, did Allah wrong him, or did he wrong himself?

If this were a human fabrication, says the Quran, many contradictory words I would find in it, it says. So: "fe men ya'mel miskâle zerretin hayran yerah" — an atom's weight of his good I will record, He says. "Ve men ya'mel miskâle zerretin şerran yerah" — and an atom's weight of his evil I will record too, He says. So, with your good and evil written in your book, tomorrow in the presence of Allah Almighty, on that mizan, that is, the scale, if your good deeds weigh heavy, how blessed you are. As a servant who longs for his Lord, you have attained Allah's mercy. If your good deeds weigh light and your sins heavy, woe to you.

And if my sins weigh heavy, woe to me.

If we do not (?) the many blessings our Lord has given us, if we deify our nafs and, against our nafs, do not carry out what Allah says, if we see the truth but, because it weighs on our nafs, do not abide by the truth, and abide by (?) to satisfy our nafs, if we follow the two-legged taghut, deceived by his material wealth or his glory, fame and rank, and offer ourselves up to him, if we cast Allah's command behind our backs, if we follow Satan's temptation and his footsteps, and, (?) the verse "beware, let not Satan strip you stark naked", deifying our nafs, strip our families stark naked and display them to people, did Allah punish us, or did we punish ourselves?

Yes. To each soul, in return for what it earned, He will give the place they deserve. So, whoever opposes Allah and His Messenger and, in this world, which we call the (?) realm, denies Allah and rebels against Him, Allah Almighty will ruin him both in this world and in the hereafter. The ruin of this world: a constant unrest being in their hearts, within this unrest giving themselves over to the desires of the nafs, committing all kinds of unimaginable filth to forget their unrest, deifying their own nafs and running after sin, opposing Allah and His Messenger, sinning out of many more feelings, and while in this world tasting, through moral collapse, the ruin and disgrace. Allah Almighty declares that, passing on to the hereafter like this, they will be ruined by a painful punishment.

Yes.