Al-Ma'idah 57: Oh you believers! Do not take as close friends the ones who mock your religion and make a play out of it from those who were given a Book previously, and the infidels. Fear Allah if you are mu’min.

What Does It Say? Surah Al-Ma'idah Verse 57. O you who believe! Of those given the Book before you, those who make your religion an object of mockery and play and the disbelievers, do not take as friends. Fear Allah if you are believers, says Allah Almighty. In our earlier lessons too, in the verses, Allah Almighty's verse saying: whoever admires them, whoever takes them as friends is like them — that verse He supports here. Why does He support it? This time He opens it up here. O you who believe! Of those given the Book before you, those who make your religion an object of mockery and play and the disbelievers, do not take as friends.

So these — the Book Allah sent, that is, His verses — and, heaping insults on the Prophet, those who make them a mockery: if you love Allah and His Messenger, do not take them as friends, He says. If you also fear Allah, He says.

Allah's word is not to be taken lightly. Those who mock it, those who insult the Beloved of the Almighty, whom He sent as a mercy to the worlds, (?) Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him), our master; those who say he is possessed, crazed, mad; those who stoned him and slapped him; those who threw (?) tripe on him. In this case a person falls into the state of an ingrate, an ingrate. If he denies someone he himself comes from — for all souls indirectly came from the Prophet's soul. Just as when a person does not give thanks and is ungrateful, the blessings Allah gives he eats and drinks, yet does not see what comes from Allah, and from right and left he thinks he earned it by his own wish and will, and that he got it that way he believes, he thinks it is his right, and gives no thanks to Allah, if he does not fulfil his duty to our Lord for the blessings He created, then surely Allah Almighty, in return for these blessings, because of what he does, squeezes them (?) tighter and tighter, narrows them more and more. Why do we understand this?

Allah Almighty (?): would We ever reduce the wealth of one who gives thanks? In this case, these people, these people — we will say all people — since they come from the Prophet's soul, (?), if they deny him, they associate partners with Allah Almighty and worship idols. They say Allah is three, four; they say we are the sons of Allah and we are Allah's close ones, punishment will not touch us for more than three days, they say. Though they have no proof at all, they fit Allah into their own heads, and, well, (?) with their actions, in this understanding, the people who are in such behaviour will surely, well, take Allah lightly and make His word a mockery too.

In this case, if you too, as a Muslim, incline toward such talk of theirs and take their side, or you like their (?), you too become like them. That is Allah Almighty's warning. Do not take them as friends. For despite Our helping them, despite Our giving them every kind of provision, despite Our making them a part of Ourselves, if people, they too, toward Us keep on with ingratitude and make Our verses (?) a mockery, then such people do not take as friends, if you fear Allah and are believers, says Allah Almighty.

According to these verses of Allah Almighty, according to these verses, if there were not other verses of His that lighten our hearts, we would have become enemies to them. Enemies. Taking as friends is one thing. Taking as enemies is another. It is embracing — taking as friends is embracing them. But enmity is eliminating them or setting traps for them. Enmity. Why? We cannot be enemies. Do not mock any people, it may be that that people is better than you, He says. Who knows? Among them, are there not those honoured with the religion of Islam? Allah Almighty says: among them, among them are those who pray, fast and give zakat, but they cannot make themselves known, He says.

So, (?) these verses, we cannot feel enmity toward them, but against the ways and deeds these disbelievers have embraced we are on guard, and inside us there is a coldness toward them. Coldness. We can never get along with them. We can never walk the path they walk. Not even the path — we would not even want to step into the shadow of the path they walk. Yes.

O you who believe! Those who were given the Book yet have not accepted Islam, who make your religion a game, do not take as friends. Among Islam, Islam being split, those who make Islam a game, those who show people the religion of Islam as bad, those who make fun of things like hulla, those who show Allah's commands as bad, who mock the sources — do not take them as friends. What is on TV today? In the past, to discredit religion, they staged hulla cases. What is hulla? If people knew the value Allah gave to man and the way of life Allah Almighty gave to man, his honour and dignity, they would not make this hulla game, this game they play, into entertainment.

Entertainment. These are enemies of religion who do not know themselves, pitiful people. What is hulla? No human being is the amusement or toy of another. Allah Almighty, in His justice, for the upkeep of a family, of a family, created the man complete, and placed the woman under the man's management, created her lacking in terms of the nafs. In terms of the nafs. So that there be peace at home, in a family, and they obey one another. In this case, the one placed under his authority — her every kind of honour, dignity, self-respect, her food, her drink, her food — the man who promised his wife to provide these, if he takes this lightly and plays with that woman's feelings, if he says I divorce you, she becomes divorced from him.

After that he takes her back in marriage, and a second time again if he says I divorce you, divorced; if again he takes her back in marriage, he can, Allah Almighty permits this. If a third time he says I divorce you — well, now I ask you, if your siblings, your sisters, or our daughters, our sisters were made a plaything like this by their husbands and cast aside, in this case, I wonder, these sisters of ours, these daughters of ours, (?) That is why Allah Almighty, protecting the honour and dignity of these women, these sisters, our daughters, says: O pitiful man, I allowed you twice, on condition that I give her to your home, that I create her as a spouse — she is not your toy, He says.

She has self-respect, she has honour and dignity. Now, He says, you can no longer take her in marriage. Unless this woman marries. Look, the woman marries; if that husband divorces her, and you again want to take her, and, He says, if the woman wants to take you, then you may marry, He says. Well, now I ask you: you divorce your wife, marry her to someone else, and after he divorces her, would you want to take her back? These are deterrent laws Allah Almighty set up, so that He protected the woman's right. If you here make hulla — that is, Allah's command over us — a joke, take it lightly, what do you have to do with human feeling?

What do you have to do with Islam? Yes. If you were human, you would value people. If you were human, the laws of Allah, who created you as the noblest of creation, you would value.

Our Lord protecting our honour and dignity — (?) It can. How? Because they, He says, are like the ones roaming the earth on four legs. Even those animals pair up. Some animals do not leave their mates until they die. There are some kinds of gulls, kinds of birds. Watch in documentaries: until death they do not leave each other. Penguins stay with their mates until they die. On the other hand, do you want to live as other creatures live? Of course, human feeling and honour weigh heavy on you. So you take Allah's word lightly and make it a game. So Allah Almighty says: if you are believers, such people, such enemies of religion, such non-Muslims — His Book, He says, the one who makes your Book a joke — do not take as friends, and fear Allah, He says.

Is it bad? Allah Almighty is telling us. Our Lord protects our honour, our dignity.

Yes. Such people have no notion of family either. (?), their own shortcomings — the marriage, more than once, that Allah made a right for people — by mocking it they try to soothe the distress in their own hearts; that is what they are. Yes, such people. Their notion of family has also vanished. Allah Almighty says: We sent you your honour. You turn your backs on your honour, He declares. What is Allah Almighty's honour? He sent our honour: the Holy Quran. He sent us our honour. If we were not bound by the Quran, today, in this short life of ours, who knows what evils we would do, who knows what deeds worse than animals we would commit.

Are there not those who do? There are. Is there no proof? There is. What proof? The proof of those not bound by the Quran. Those who marry their own sex, who with every kind of vice and violence bring out filth you could not imagine, who prove the fulfilment of the verse that says: in their course, more astray than animals. Yes, We sent you your honour, and you turn your backs on your honour. Since these have no honour and dignity, do not take them as friends, declares Allah Almighty. Do not take them as friends. They have no honour and dignity. They have no notion of family either. That is, a man (?), sends his wife (?).

And he says — his friends ask — if this wife takes a friend there, she may, he says. Well, can she sleep with him? She may, it is her right too, he says, she has needs too, he says. Look, what kind of understanding is this? What kind of marriage is this?

Words that make your hair stand on end. Words that make your hair stand on end.

Can you imagine the honour and dignity of such people? Is there any? Can you say they have honour and dignity? Faulty everywhere, people with no redeeming side, those who lost their selves, the morally fallen, those who oppose Allah's commands and present falsehood as truth — do not take them as friends, says Allah Almighty. Yes.

People faulty everywhere, with no redeeming side. People of whom our Lord says: they are lying disbelievers. Who lost their selves, that is, who lost their humanity, who look human in form only, the morally fallen, who live like animals, who oppose Allah's commands, that is, the religion of Islam, Allah's word that gives them honour and dignity and lights their way — opposing it, those who present falsehood as truth, that is, the path they follow as very beautiful, making it look beautiful to people carried away by (?) feelings,

admiring their lives, falling for their own pleasures and their pull on people — do not take them as friends, says Allah Almighty. Their immoral behaviour and careless talk, affecting you too, may darken your hearts and lead to weakness of faith or loss of faith — they can cause this. Allah Almighty (?) they, they (?) non-Muslims.

Immoral. When they speak (?) against Allah's commands, leave that place, He says. Then you too will incline toward them, He says. Because Allah Almighty warns us that the nafs always inclines toward evil. So what do we say? It darkens hearts and may lead to weakness of faith, to loss of faith. Because the human nafs, instead of obeying Allah, enjoys such evil ways. Since you cannot master your nafs, then you become like them. However much you master your nafs, against being dragged ever more into fornication, in forbidden ways, how much ego and pride could you bear? Therefore, the state of people who mock your religion and of those who associate partners with Allah, and what these people will do, Allah Almighty knows, so Allah warns the people of faith.

Only (?) In this verse: O people, O non-Muslims who do not accept the religion, whatever mindset you have, look, My verses say this, He says. Do not continue on that path, turn back so that you (?), He says. He calls out to them too, Allah Almighty. O you who believe, not heeding the verses, (?), living heedless of Islam and of Allah — the enemies of Islam whose way of life pleases your nafs — if you take them as friends, then on that day of reckoning, in the torment you fall into — O Allah, You knew the state of these people. Why did You not tell us about them? — lest you say this, Allah, addressing the believers: O you who believe, those of the People of the Book who are enemies of Islam, and polytheist men and women, do not take as friends; do not let your religion be mocked — so He calls out to people.

If the people of faith do not heed this call, Allah has placed the responsibility on people's own shoulders. Yes.

What comes after this is each person living out their destiny. May Allah grant us guidance, we said. Yes.