PRESENTER: Insha'Allah. "My very esteemed hodja. I do pray for you and all believers, insha'Allah. How can I tell if my faith is true, or not? I mean, how can I tell whether or not it is as Almighty Allah wishes? May Allah forbid otherwise. With my love, respect and prayers. May our Lord protect you." From Kuzey in Istanbul.

ADNAN OKTAR: The thing that Kuzey needs to pay most attention to is sincerity. Allah tells us that, I take refuge in Allah from the satan, "Honest servants will be saved." It is to be sincere.  People's problem is lack of good conscience. And lack of good conscience always hurts them. For instance they experience tension and uneasiness. But whatever a person does is fine, if he heeds his conscience completely, that is, if he does not keep his conscious under pressure. He would anyway abide by the requirements of the religion if he is sincere. But if he is not, then even if he performs his prayers and performs all his religious observances, no matter what he does, they will be valid. Sincerity is what we must concentrate on most. There is a single verse to that effect in the Qur'an. Allah provides no more detail. "My honest servants will be saved," He says. That is it. Insha'Allah. Kuzey must also take pains over sincerity and honesty. If he wonders how he can do that, Allah has given us two kinds of power. For one, there is the satan's revelation. Satan reveals things to us every moment of every day. For example, he depicts a good thing as evil, or an evil thing as good. He depicts honest people as liars and liars as honest. But then there is the revelation of Allah. And that is known as conscience. Sometimes people call some conscienceless, that is if one does not use his conscience. If we totally abandon ourselves to our consciences, Allah will constantly provide revelation through that conscience. People are constantly under revelation. They therefore speak and act in the best way. Troubles arise because they do not abide by revelation, the revelation Allah bestows on their hearts. That is why we see people with inauspicious faces. That is why conflicts arise. For example, under the influence of satan they give a foul reply when they could give a pleasant one, instead of acting genuinely. That is why one must follow one's conscience very closely. Sincerity is what they call closely heeding one's conscience. The conscience has a lovely voice. Let me cite an example from the time of our Prophet (saas). The Prophet (saas) commanded the Companions to engage in the struggle, to spread the religion of Allah together. Some hypocrites among them said their homes were unattended, meaning they had wives and children and siblings and their own business and affairs to take care of. They said they would attend to those first and then maybe follow you later on. They said it would be improper to abandon them and head off on such a mission. They said the family was more important than anything else, actually trying to put ideas in the Prophet's head, may Allah forbid. "Let us first resolve these things, then we will do what you tell us," they said. Allah sent down a verse of the Qur'an about such people: ‘If your fathers or your sons or your brothers or your wives or your tribe" that means who ever you are acquainted to, "or any wealth you have acquired, or any business you fear may slump, or any house which pleases you, are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger" that is the messenger of Allah, who ever the leader preaching the religion of Allah "and doing jihad in His Way," that is to spread the religion of Allah, to tell people about goodness,  "then wait, " says Allah, that is because life is too short anyway.  How long will he wait? He will wait maximum 3-5 10 years, Allah says then I will give you your response.  This means that Allah does not give the answer fully and swiftly in this world. He gives one, but not in such a way as to remove all scope for free will. The true answer is in the Hereafter. "I will then give you the response of this, I will then explain you this," He says.That is what that means. "Because you prefer what I have created to Me," He says. In other words, "You prefer the images I show you in your brain to Me. And I shall recompense you accordingly." Allah says, "They have forgotten Me. And I have forgotten them" in another verse. This is insincerity in action among people, not to prefer Allah above worldly interests, Allah, His Messenger and to strive on His path. That is where the problem has always come from. No problem has ever arisen from praying, fasting and worshiping. All hypocrites perform prayers. All hypocrites perform their prayers, fast and give alms. That cannot be the measure of the religion. Hypocrisy emerges when it finds things difficult. Hypocrites show their hypocrisy when things conflict with their interests. For instance, they built the Dirar Mosque in the time of the Companions, of our Prophet (saas). These were very insincere, false people. The hypocrites built a second mosque when the mosque of our Prophet (saas) was right close by, a whole new building. They invited the Prophet (saas) and the Companions to this building. They said; "You come here. We can perform our services better here, we  can perform  our prayers much better here, yours is not such a good, fruitful place, they said. Come and let us pray here". They imagined that our Prophet's (saas) location was not a good place. That is an example of dishonesty. Look, when those are told to come and strive on Allah's path, even though they first come forward in the name of takwa(Fear of Allah) and find fault with the Companions and the location of our Prophet (saas) and his mosque. "Our mosque is cleaner, better, better quality, pleasanter, we discuss things better there, we worship better there, so you come here" they said. But when pressed, the verse tells us that they refused to leave their possessions, sons, siblings, wives, - wives are also mentioned in the verse-  and homes they lived in, nor to abandon their business they that would be left undone. They made no concessions on those. May Allah forgive me, I should not say concessions, but rather when they compared those with Allah, with the wishes of Allah, they declined to follow Allah's wishes. They followed their own desires. That is where dishonesty emerges. Otherwise, they were indistinguishable in terms of prayer and religious observances. Allah says in one verse that their prayers are all for show. There is a verse to that effect.  That means those cannot be a measure. Sincerity is measured when people face difficulties. Let us imagine that a man gets married. His wife then is diagnosed with cancer and he divorces her. That, for instance, is a cruelty. That is because Allah entrusted her to you. Anyone can get cancer or fall sick and die. That is morally wrong. It is grave dishonesty and an unpleasant course of action. The reward for it in the Hereafter would be Hell. I mean that is a cruelty. That is because when one gets married one does so for mutual support, for better or worse, for Allah's approval. She is an innocent servant of Allah. Allah entrusted her to you, and since you married her, you have a duty to look after her until she dies. There are no guarantees. There is no guarantee she will always look nice and be perfect in all respects and that you will only remain married under those conditions. You are obliged to protect her in her sickness and hardship. There are many examples of such dishonesty. Honest people will protect and watch over their spouses with respect even if they are disabled or become sick, until they die. They will try to give them as long lives as possible. That is because a long life is a good thing, when looking at it in auspicious terms insha'Allah , because one can thus worship Allah more. Of course one could expand on this much more, but I am giving examples from daily life. In essence, I can say that one must abide in all sincerity by Allah's revelation, by what Allah reveals to the heart.