An-Nisa 43: Oh you believers! If you are drunk (intoxicated), do not approach the prayer until you comprehend what you are saying, and if you are in a state of major ritual impurity, (do not approach prayer) until you bathe. If you cannot find water when you become ill or when you are on travel, or when one of you comes from the toilet, or when you approach women, then cleanse yourselves with clean earth. Rub it on your face and on your hands. Indeed, Allah is Pardoning (Afuww) and Oft-Forgiving (Ghafoor).

May Allah be pleased with you. Surah An-Nisa, verse 43.

Here our Lord's commands, how we are to behave within the rulings of the Sharia, Allah Almighty shines a light before us with His laws. With His laws.

O you who believe! While you are drunk, until you know what you are saying, and while in a state of janabah, except one who is travelling, one who is travelling, until you perform ghusl, do not approach the prayer. If you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from the call of nature, or you have touched women and in these situations you have not found water, then with clean earth perform tayammum. Wipe your faces and your hands. Surely Allah is most pardoning and forgiving. Yes. Now, if we pay attention to the verse, look what it says. O you who believe, while you are drunk, until you know what you are saying — to those who believe, while you are drunk, He says. Yet alcohol is forbidden.

Allah Almighty knows that those Muslims, unable to master their nafs, will drink alcohol. Just as He knows what every single living being that will come until the Day of Resurrection will do. So in this case too, to those who drink alcohol and want to stand for prayer, He says: never do such a thing. Stand only after you have come to your senses. There are two reasons for this. Why does He not want it in His presence? First, the person will falter. He does not know what he is saying. His mind is not sound. He thinks himself sensible, but he is unaware of what he says. His tongue is slurred. When he means to say Elif, I mean, he says spool. When he means spool he says spinach.

When he means spinach he says onion. Second, it would mean that for the people He accepted into His presence while drunk there was no harm. He had made it forbidden, after all. Look, since He accepts the prayer in this state too, it would mean He accepts the drunk. In this case alcohol is forbidden. So here too it signifies that alcohol is forbidden. How beautiful. Do not stand for prayer while drunk, He says. Until you know what you are saying. Until you know what you are saying. And while in janabah, except one who is travelling. Except one who is travelling. What does this mean? That is, while in janabah, without washing, the prayer?

Does it mean pray? No. This is a traveller. Where? On a train. Where? On a ship. Where? On a plane. He is going a long way. He dozed off, became junub. And the time will pass. Then, if there is no earth, by performing tayammum on earth, on a clean place, he will pray his prayer. There is no letting the prayer pass. Look. No letting the prayer pass. If you are a traveller, going over a mountain, through a desert, if there is no stream, no lake, no water source, if you have no way to wash, you are a traveller. And the prayer is about to pass; then on clean earth you will perform tayammum. Tayammum is two strikes and one intention.

What is it? You will strike the earth with both hands like this, twice. Then you will clap your two hands together. Then you will open your left palm. You pass the back of your right hand through the inside of your left palm up to the elbow. Then you turn it back again. Again, this hand: putting the back of the left hand into the right palm, you pass it like this. Again you strike the ground. Then you do your hands like this and wipe your face. Done. You are clean. Until when? Until you find water. Once you find water your janabah continues; you will wash there. Yes, there is a parable they tell on this subject.

One hodja like this gives a sermon in the mosque, gives (?); not a sermon, he gives (?) or a sermon. A man travels in the desert with his donkey. It is very hot; he sees a date palm and lies down at its foot. When he sleeps he becomes junub. He wakes and sees the donkey is gone. The water is on his donkey. On his donkey is the water.

He looks right and left but cannot see the donkey. And the time is about to pass. He quickly performs tayammum. As he stands for prayer he hears the donkey bray. At that moment someone comes into the mosque. Hodja Efendi, the donkey brayed, he says. Ablution is broken. Why? The water is on the donkey, and your tayammum is broken, he says. You will go from there and take ablution. You found your donkey, its voice is nearby; from there you will take its water and (?) your ablution. The tayammum is broken. You will take ablution. Now the one who came in says: the donkey brayed, the ablution is broken.

That is how he understands it.

If people do not listen well to the religion of Islam, this is how understandings arise. One must listen well. What was it? If you cannot find water while travelling, so that you can perform the prayer of the time, our Lord grants people ease. Can this ease happen to all of us as human beings? It can. To some it does not, to some it does. But when such a situation arises generally, He says, immediately, if you cannot find water, you will perform tayammum and pray your prayer. But the moment you find water, your tayammum is broken, that is, the full ablution you took for the day is broken. You are obliged to take the full ablution again.

That is, when you find this water. Yes.

While you are drunk, until you know what you are saying, He says. Now He comes to drunkenness. What is drunkenness? From the moment the alcohol that gives people pleasure enters the body, from the moment a single drop of it starts to enter the body, it causes clotting in the blood. Because blood does not reach the brain cells as it should, the brain cells begin to go numb. In this case the person loses himself in an intoxicated state.

This person's speech, the slurring of his tongue, let's not say entirely outside reason, but with half a mind or a quarter of a mind; for example, he thinks himself in his right mind but cannot control himself. In this state Allah Almighty does not allow him either to stand for prayer.

We said that from the moment a single drop of alcohol enters the body it causes clotting in the blood and, by creating difficulties for the heart, strains the heart too. For this reason, the harms of alcohol in the human body, because it affects the organs in the human body, it has been made forbidden to man. Alcohol, that is, alcoholic substances.

Is all alcohol forbidden?

In fiqh, a drop of alcohol, from the moment it drips into the palm, if it is the size of a ten-kuruş coin or smaller than that, to the human body it does no harm. If it covers a place the size of ten kuruş when you spread it, like this. More than that is forbidden.

In this case, there is alcohol in cologne.

We can wash our hands with this alcohol. Our hands; we do not take it into our body. Sometimes the Sufis, that is, we will call them those who believe blindly, do not even pour cologne on themselves. Cologne. Yet it kills germs. You go to a hospital, I mean you go somewhere, you go to visit a patient, there of necessity your hands on the wall or wherever you (?), we can wash them with soap too, but alcohol also kills the germs there. There is no harm in this. I mean, (?) your hands with alcohol like this. Besides, you get a cut somewhere, you get a cut somewhere, so that germs do not get in there, to clean away that germ you apply alcohol.

You are not drinking it into your body and making yourself drunk. Alcohol has benefits and also harms. These are benefits; as for harms, one drinks and loses oneself; so in fiqh more than a drop. That is, the alcohol you apply to the (?) as needed is perhaps not even a drop. Do not look at more than that. Into the (?) body perhaps not even that much enters. It kills the germs at the edges. In this case, if alcohol were entirely harmful, Allah Almighty would have created harmful beings. There is wisdom in everything He creates. A little is beneficial to man, much is harmful. (?) how much of it harms the human body, I mean, how much gives a person pleasure, and how much is beneficial, I mean; this is how we are explaining it.

A drop, we said, in the palm; let it not be misunderstood, now some look for a calf under the ox, they say: look, this man made alcohol lawful. They say it anyway. They say what they want. In a way that covers a spot the size of ten kuruş. Larger than that is harmful if it enters the body. There is no harm in it. Even if it enters the human body, that is, even (?), of course, disappears on the tongue. It disappears on that person's tongue. It does no harm to the human body. But larger than that brings harm. What? Clotting in the blood, or, I mean, upsetting a person's balance, giving intoxication.

For this reason this too has been made forbidden by our Lord, and in this case He declares that the one who takes alcohol, a person who has had alcohol, until he knows what he says in our Lord's presence, should not stand for prayer.

Do not approach the prayer. If you are ill or on a journey, or one of you comes from the call of nature, that is, he came from outside; from the foot road, He said: he went to another town and stayed a day, two days, or a few days and came back, or he did some shopping, came back from the market, and wanted to lie with his wife. Or you have touched women and in these situations you do not find, have not found water, then perform tayammum with clean earth, He says. Yes, you came home.

Welcome, welcome. Allah's command, it is lawful; he lay with his lawful wife.

There is water in the tap too. The water is flowing. Or at that moment he did not think of it, whatever. They get up to wash, there is no water. No water in the tap. Today in many places in Istanbul, in Ankara, in big cities this happens. No water. They look, and the time is about to pass. The time is about to pass. In this case Allah Almighty says: perform tayammum with clean earth. But let me also tell you this.

You have no water. You have no water at home. But at a certain distance there is a bath-house. There is water there. A certain distance. I don't have its distance in mind right now. Do they call it sixty farsakh? Do they call it six farsakh? Anyway, if within that distance somewhere there is water, you will go there. You will go there. You will wash there. If such a situation does not exist, or if the prayer time will pass before you get there, then you perform tayammum with clean earth.

Then you pray your prayer.

Now, in this case, the person's, or how much ease Allah Almighty shows to man.

They also tell a narration like this. A narration. It is nice; even if it is a narration, it is nice.

While junub, it says.

If an adhan passes over that person while junub, one time, that is, by an adhan it means a prayer time, if it passes over him, in the hereafter they will dress that person in a shirt of fire, it says. A shirt of fire. Yes. Now, what kind of time is this time? Let us explain this too.

I prayed the noon prayer.

I lay down. Let's say we became junub. The prayer has been prayed, the time has been prayed.

Before we found water, the adhan was called. That is, the afternoon prayer was called. The afternoon adhan was called. You have entered the afternoon time. So now will you wear a shirt of fire? No. This is not it. You prayed the noon. This time has only just come in. This adhan did not pass over you while junub. If the evening adhan is called, then the adhan of one prayer time has passed over you.

If you became junub before praying the noon prayer, and the afternoon adhan was called, then over you the adhan of one prayer time has been called.

You prayed the noon prayer, lay down, became junub, got up, could not find water, the afternoon adhan was called. You have entered the afternoon time; an adhan has not yet passed over you. An adhan must pass over you, a prayer time must pass; then that narration says shirt of fire, that's all. While junub, a person having an adhan called over him, or not caring and not cleaning himself.

Allah Almighty has made alcohol, intoxicants, forbidden. It is forbidden because it is harmful to the human body. The moment a drop of alcohol enters the human body it causes clotting in the blood and affects a person's blood circulation. By overworking the brain cells it causes the cells to be destroyed before their time, and early depressions and forgetfulness arise. Why do these arise? From drinking alcohol, from wearing out the body, from too little blood reaching the brain cells, from their going numb, and from the brain cells' activity being exceeded, from the brain cells wearing out quickly and early through excessive activity; in this case forgetfulness arises.

Many illnesses appear.

So if, from the desire of your nafs, you take the alcohol Allah has forbidden and drink it and get drunk, do not stand for prayer in this state, says Allah Almighty. Why not stand? Let us explain once more. Because there are newly arrived children of ours too. We said for two reasons. He does not want one standing in His presence. One: had He accepted one standing in His presence after drinking, the prohibition would be lifted. After all, one would have gone into Allah Almighty's presence even with alcohol. Second, since the person is not himself, he speaks half-baked, and since he is in a state lower than that of the human created with honour, Allah Almighty does not want to see him that way, that person.

Therefore, until he learns the correctness of his words, his speech, that is, until he knows, Allah Almighty forbids him the prayer, and the most precious times, the performing of the time He forbids him, and the performances of that time, by that drinking, through the effect of the alcohol, that person is responsible for that time, both for the prayer debt and for how he spent it.

Yes.

Because this person is not aware of what he is saying. Under the effect of alcohol the tongue slurs. Allah's word is based on letters, and when reciting the verses he cannot pronounce the letters fully. For example, halak, whose meaning is to create. Halak, with a dot above, halak. When pronouncing this verse, if you say halak, that carries the meaning of death, of nothing, of annihilating.

Many more verses and dots like this in the Quran change the meaning. For this reason, when you have taken alcohol, do not pray while drunk until you sober up. Some people ask: I am aware of myself, I had one double, this does not affect me, can't I stand for prayer like this; they ask such questions and look for answers to their questions. They insist: I only drank one double, I'm not drunk, he says, one double. Yet in fiqh, more than a drop; and that drop varies from drop to drop. You know, the size of ten kuruş, a drop that covers it in your palm and does not go beyond it. Drops vary; there are big drops too.

It leaves your palm like water. Yes, there is a difference from drop to drop. This one has had a double and (?) saying, I am not drunk. Tell a drunk you are drunk, and he says, no, me, drunk? Walking along the road he lurches to the right, then lurches to the left. He crosses to the right of the pavement, then to the left, zigzagging. He thinks he is walking straight. Drunk. Yes.

Now, in the science of fiqh, based on this verse, how much alcohol a person may take without the alcohol he takes harming his body. According to the science of fiqh. Some scholars: the palm, the size of an old ten kuruş, that is, with a diameter of about one centimetre, alcohol that would (?) such a circle, or alcohol taken in an amount covering less than that does not harm the body.

It does not harm the body, we said; they even disappear on a person's tongue. That is, it evaporates there and disappears. Allah creates nothing in vain. Alcohol has benefits for the human body, but not directly. As I explained earlier, on condition of being applied to wounds, like tincture of iodine for example. Or (?) the cologne on that bleeding wound, I mean, applying it right at the edges so it doesn't get infected, and cleaning it. Yes.

Alcohol is used in medicines for the treatment of illnesses. There is alcohol in pills too. There is alcohol in some medicines too. For people's health, in medicines, some medicines contain alcohol. In keeping a cut hand or any place from getting infected, in cleaning that wound, by using it you cleanse that area of germs. For the protection of the human body, Allah, what is good or not good for those bodies, tells us with His verses.

The human body is a trust given to man. These bodies are a trust to us.

What are we saying now? The human body is a trust given to man. Allah Almighty in His verse: You, for the way in which you used the bodies I gave you, I will call you to account, He says. What does He say in His verse? For the way in which you used the bodies I gave you, I will call you to account. So according to this verse spirit, nafs and soul are one, the bodies are separate. Again according to this verse, Allah Almighty addresses not our bodies but our spirit. Again according to the same verse, when the spirits are paired, We revive you twice, when We cause you to die twice; according to the verses, that He never addresses our body but addresses our spirit and holds us accountable through our spirit, He shows us here.

But some see themselves inside this body. They go to paradise and hell with bodies too. The meanings of those verses vanish in their own heads. Of the verses. You revive twice, You cause to die twice. And according to their own heads, according to the verses they generalise, people will not remain in hell, they will come out, and many beings too will taste death. They too will taste death. They too will vanish, they say.

Because they do not know the origin. Yet the verse, they are there forever, is done away with, according to them. Yes.

The human body is a trust given to man. The trust is betrayed. By drinking alcohol, the human body, to man a trust. How the trust is to be looked after and protected, Allah who created it tells us. The trust is betrayed. By drinking alcohol these bodies are damaged, and if Allah's commands are defied, people will give the account of this to Allah Almighty, who created and owns these bodies, will give it. Doesn't Yunus Emre say so too? We clothed ourselves in flesh and bone.

We appeared as Yunus. This is the world of matter. To provide our outward appearance we clothed ourselves in the garb of the body. In this case, within this garb of the body, we, so that we prove what kind of person we are, in the world of the hereafter, of the covenant we gave to Allah Almighty, had the scenario of our covenant written there. Here we play as actors. So if we do not listen to our Lord's commands, if within our nafs-driven feelings we damage the trust given us, wear it out, we are responsible for it.

In this case, in the world of the hereafter, how does a person, to Allah Almighty, for this body, the trust he was given, answer to the owner of the trust? (?). When he goes there he gives his account in his Lord's presence.

Do not approach the prayer while junub. The religion of Islam is a religion of cleanliness. When a person becomes junub, in that state of (?), from all the pores of the body, like sweat, all impurities come out. That is why, when a Muslim washes, so that not even a pinhead of dry spot remains on his body, he wets or washes his body. Yes.

In this state of janabah one does not stand for prayer either.

One does not go about like this, and one does not even eat food or even drink water, because you are impure. Only the state of travel and of not finding, not finding water, is an exception. The state of travel: as I explained earlier, you could not find water, you will perform tayammum, you will clean your body. In these situations a person performs tayammum. Tayammum is two strikes and one intention. I explained the matter of tayammum at the beginning of the first volume. We say let us touch on it briefly here too. We described this to you. How it is done, in this case there is no need to explain again.

No need to read that part. But still, until we find water, the prayer, until we find water we will have been freed from janabah. But still, until we find water we cannot approach the prayer. Only if the prayer time comes and we cannot find water, then we take ablution with tayammum and can pray our prayer. This is renewed for each prayer time until we find water and continues. I performed tayammum, you will pray, and at that moment when you get water your tayammum is broken, it is broken; you need to take ablution with water. As I explained earlier, as the Hodja Efendi told it.

Yes, or there is no water, the water is on the donkey, he slept, the donkey got lost, the time is passing, he performed tayammum, took the tayammum ablution, he is about to pray. He notices the donkey braying. He took ablution, the donkey brayed, the ablution is broken. Why is it broken? Because the water is on the donkey; he will wash with it and be cleaned. Then he will pray his prayer. Where there is water, tayammum is not valid.

Water: according to the honourable Hanafi, from running water, he says, or from clean water, drinkable water, ablution is taken, he says. If there is no running water, from that water, he says, ablution cannot be taken.

The honourable Imam Shafi'i says, from non-flowing water too, ablution can be taken. As long as the water's taste, colour and smell, taste, colour and smell do not change, as long as they do not change, the water has not lost its property. And that is in fact the correct view. From this, he says, ablution can be taken. So according to regions, according to regions, the madhhab differences in the religion of Islam make the religion of Islam easier. And in terms of piety, the honourable Hanafi. Because running water kills germs. Yes.

In illness too, if a person is seriously ill and cannot get up from his place, he arranges it where he lies, takes ablution and prays his prayer. He cannot get up on his feet.

He has no strength either.

With (?) help he is not able to stand. From where he lies, by striking the wall with his hands he takes the tayammum ablution, and with his eyebrow, his eye, he prays his prayer. Yes.

Also, due to the aches and pains of the body or a rise in fever, a person may be junub. In this case, since due to his serious illness he cannot get to the water, cannot get up, in situations where his body cannot tolerate water, that is, people in fractures and bandages take ablution with tayammum and in that way, where they lie, can pray by signs with the head and eyes. Also people who have come from the call of nature, that is, if one has been away from home for a while, people who left home because of work or some excuses, when they return to their homes and have relations with their wives, if they cannot find water, they can take ablution with tayammum and pray their prayer.

The moment he gets water, the tayammum is broken. He cleanses his body by taking the ghusl with water. Surely, since Allah is aware of all our states and knows our intentions, His pardon and forgiveness are great. As long as a person, sincerely and devotedly, deeds depend on intention, acts according to the verse.