Al-Ma'idah 4: They ask you regarding what has been made permissible for them. Say; “Today, good and clean things have been made permissible for you.” Eat from what the animals that you have taught to hunt caught for you, as you were taught by Allah and mention the name of Allah upon them (say Bismillah, Allahu Akbar). Fear Allah. Verily, Allah is swift in Allah’s account.

In the fourth verse of Surah Al-Ma'idah, Allah Almighty says: what has been made lawful for them, they ask you.

Yes. What is lawful for them, they ask you.

Yes, in the verse: what is lawful for them, He says, they ask you; say: all good and clean things are made lawful for you. Good and clean things. Allah Almighty already, in the previous verse, says what is forbidden; what does He say? Blood, carrion, pork, animals slaughtered for other than Allah's name, what beasts tear apart, but if you reach it before it dies and slaughter it, He says, that is lawful for you. Apart from that, all clean things are lawful for you. If apart from that everything is clean, why does Allah Almighty say clean things once more?

Isn't that so, Kenan Hodja? Apart from that everything is clean, lawful for you. Clean things are lawful for you, He says.

If you mix the forbidden into your earnings and eat it as forbidden, is it clean for you? Yes.

That is, earning lawfully and eating, the provisions you bought with it are clean for you. Otherwise, you earned it by cheating this one and that one.

You went with that forbidden money. You bought clean goods. And you ate them too. That became forbidden for you. Is that so? The clean was clean for you. It did not stay clean; it became forbidden. Allah Almighty says this in a verse: Who forbids what Allah has created clean, He says. So people, what Allah created clean, for example grapes, they make into wine. Right? Clean. It became forbidden. This was clean. It became forbidden. Yes. Just like this, all good and clean things are made lawful for you. Of what the animals you trained, teaching them from what Allah taught you, and made hunters catch for you, eat too, and mention Allah's name over it.

They keep hunting dogs, you know, they train the animals; what the hunter shoots, even if it falls into a stream, even if it is hidden among trees, it finds it, takes it out, and brings it to you. Mention Allah's name, say Bismillah, Allahu Akbar, fear Allah; Allah's reckoning (?).

In Allah Almighty saying all good and clean things are made lawful for people, what He means by the forbidden foods is made known in the previous verse.

In this verse, what He means by lawful and clean is that people do not unjustly seize each other's property; taken and eaten from an evil like gambling, the taking of unjust gains like forbidden money and goods. The food Allah offered man clean and pure, by drinking alcohol with it making his meal forbidden to himself, and meals taken and eaten in such ways, as well as spoiled, wormy foods harmful to the human body, have also been made forbidden to people.

What the birds and dogs or other hunting animals that Allah Almighty taught people, and that people train and use as hunters, catch, is lawful to people. For example there are (?): people train birds and after the rabbit or the quail, the bird, they release them. They catch it and you take it from them.

What such animals catch is lawful to people. Allah Almighty has made it lawful. When slaughtering the caught animals, be sure to slaughter them in Allah's name. That is, say Bismillah, Allahu Akbar. Do not slaughter saying Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. One does not slaughter with Rahman and Rahim. You will say Bismillah.

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim you will not say. Well, one does not slaughter with Rahman and Rahim. Bismillah, Allahu Akbar. You mention Allah's name; with Allah's name you say Allah is the Greatest, and you slaughter. Yes, say it. Let me not eat the meat of an animal whose blood has not flowed, that is not slaughtered, that is strangled.

Surely Allah has given people a body as a trust. These bodies are a trust to us. What does He say in His verse? For the way you used this trust I gave you, I will call you to account, He says. This is a trust. Betraying this trust is not right. If you feed it what Allah has forbidden, tomorrow on the Day of Judgement, when you, with a driver, come before Me, according to the verse where He says that, it will bear witness against us. What will it say? O Allah, this servant of Yours, You made me obedient to him, and he made me drink alcohol. He ruined me. He forced me. He made me go bad ways, do bad things.

So tomorrow, in the presence of Allah Almighty, if your body bears witness against you like this, what will you say?

Will you deny it? No, you cannot deny it. Look, just as you are watching me here, if you recorded a video, on this videotape, even if you listened thousands of times, you'd always hear the same. If you can record this on a videotape, these rays that we give off, like a videotape, to show us, is Allah Almighty not able to? If a person records this on a videotape, or saves it digitally, in a small place, on a small piece of metal, then Allah Almighty, these images of yours, is He not able to record them? Tomorrow when you say no, I didn't do that, and He shows it to you, what will you say? Yes.

So surely Allah has given people a body as a trust; this body is a trust to us; how these bodies are to be protected, Allah, who created the human body, makes known; so you will protect it, and while protecting it, you will not be given to pleasure and indulgence, because the nafs wants to live in pleasure and indulgence; so Allah Almighty: the excess of everything is forbidden; you will reform your nafs; within Allah's commands you will keep this body living in the best way. For example, the nafs wants very fine (?). The nafs wants very fine baklava, börek. So you eat like that. Your means allow it too.

Your nafs constantly wants to cruise on yachts, go on trips. You have the money too. So you travel like that. Well, such trips, such things, in excess, bring harm to a person. They fatten the nafs and darken the heart. Instead of your nafs eating (?) one after another, you make it fast. From evening to evening you give it one or two slices, a taste, that's all. And you also find health. Let it not make your body sluggish. Well, (?). In this way the body lives the best life. You make it serve as it should, His being, yourself, that body. So with what beautiful verses Allah Almighty gives life to people like this.

And that body, on the Day of Judgement, to Allah Almighty: the nafs wanted this and that, but if he had given it, I would have become like this, like that. He kept me always fit, kept me vigorous, it will say. And in that fitness and vigour, without any sluggishness, he did his worship, it will say. And he always got me up at night. He disturbed my rest too. He disturbed my rest. He got me up at night. He had me pray tahajjud prayers. But this became a mercy for me. The next day I got up very peaceful, I got up vigorous, it will say. Yes. Those who pray the tahajjud prayer are peaceful the next day.

Peaceful. These are the benefits of worship; the benefits of worship. How these bodies are to be protected, Allah, who created the human body, makes known; whoever goes beyond this, does not heed Allah's command, and this body given to man as a trust uses outside Allah's command, feeds it, gives it drink, Allah will one day ask him for an account of it. With the verse in which He says: every soul will taste death and finally your return is to Me, one day in that Supreme Court, on that day when judgement belongs to Allah Almighty alone, in the presence of Allah Almighty, the Judge of judges, we will give account.

This is inevitable. Inevitable. Just as you see your surroundings with your eyes and that what you see is not a dream but, when you touch it, you understand it is reality, that too is such a reality. That day is such a reality. If you fall into doubt about this, you show weakness in faith, you hesitate. Yes.

Allah's reckoning is both very swift and very severe. Very severe. No one could easily bear Allah's punishment in the Hereafter. I say easily because there is no longer (?). He will have to stay there. Allah Almighty commands in a verse: for the way you used the bodies I gave you, I will call you to account. He will call us to account today. Not only for these bodies. But also for the deeds we have done.