An-Nisa 25: For those among you who cannot afford to marry free believing women, marry from the believing maidservants (jariyah) whom you possess. Allah knows your belief better. You are all from the same origin (there is no difference between you). So, under the condition that they live chastely, don’t commit fornication and don’t have secret partners, marry them (the jariyah) and give their marriage gifts according to custom. If they commit fornication after marriage, their punishment is half the punishment of free women. This (permission to marry the jariyah) is for those who fear committing sins. It is however better for you to be patient. Allah is Oft-Forgiving (Ghafoor) and Most Merciful (Raheem).

Surah An-Nisa, the 25th verse: Whoever among you, to marry free believing women, lacks the means. Who are these? Among our acquaintances, around us, in our neighbourhood, or among some people we hear of: he has reached marrying age but cannot marry. His means do not allow it. He cannot give the woman her mahr right. The woman. So in this situation he cannot marry. So in this case, from the believing young women under your hands counted as your daughters, from your slave women, the believing young women counted as daughters among slave women; say a man died, and someone took them under his protection.

They become like our daughters. Because they came under our protection. But since, neither on the mother's side nor on the father's side, any sect separation or union exists, with them those who took them under their protection can marry, we said. We explained these earlier. Yes. Let him marry from your slave women. Allah knows your faith better, it says. Of course. You are all of the same origin, it says. We said it in our last lesson. We said we are all from one another, remember. And here comes the verse. You are all of the same origin. That is, here Allah Almighty means we came from the Prophet, all from the same origin.

As the first human, from Adam, but before that, since we were created in the world of souls, those souls, from the Prophet's soul, from a part of him, since we were created so, all the same origin. It goes back to one origin. As it says, from one soul: you were created from a single soul. A single soul. We said this goes very deep. Yes.

As human beings there is no difference among you, it says. As human beings. There is no difference among us. We are all human. No human differs from any other human. Human. Hodja, some people are very beautiful, and some people are very ugly. You cannot say that. Why can't you? All forms are among the forms of Allah Almighty. Do not forget this verse. Allah creates nothing in vain. So to people afflicted with (?) attributes you cannot say, this one is beautiful, that one is ugly. Beauty and ugliness are in your nafs. If you reform it, you are a very beautiful person, but if you do not reform it, you are a very ugly one, because with the words from your mouth, with bad words that Allah does not want, you break the hearts of the people before you, you disparage them, and your own human dignity and pride you debase.

Yes.

Then, on condition that they live chastely, do not commit fornication, and do not take secret lovers, and with the permission of their owners, them, the slave women, marry, it says. Who are the owners? With the permission of the people in his household, his close family.

Because her guardian belongs to that person in his household; in Arabic they call this (?), that is, the one responsible for her.

This, this

the people who own those slave women, because such people are left in hardship, marry them off. But now, unfortunately, there are neither slave women nor people living with such honour and repute, who preserve the notion of chastity and honour. Not all of them, though. My words are not about all of them. God forbid.

There are also people who, if someone looks at them askance, feel like killing him. They are the exceptions. But if we put it in percentages, most have gone off the rails. He says Allah, lives Islam, wants to live it. He does not leave Islam either. He says, I am a Muslim. But he does not fulfil a single letter of Islam. Not a single letter does he fulfil. Shall we only talk about women? No, we will talk about men now.

I am not backbiting. God forbid.

How must a Muslim be? He will either be as he appears or appear as he is. So a person performs the prayer. Goes to Hajj and gives his zakat. But for a petty gain he breaks the heart of the person before him, and if he tries to take from him without caring whether it is halal or haram, then compared with the good he did, the sin he earns is greater.

So how is a Muslim to be? The Muslim, according to the hadith the Prophet spoke: If the worship you do does not keep you from evil, it is a burden on you. You will not be out of line with his hadith.

If you pray, you will try to be worthy of that prayer. If you grew a beard, you will try to be worthy of your beard. If they know you as Islam, above all, beyond your own fame and repute, beyond your own self, your Lord's verses upon you you will try to guard. Because as a Muslim you have taken your place in your Lord's ranks. If you cannot keep that quality, cannot keep it, you harm yourself and bring Islam into contempt. Today, those who cannot live Islam, and various non-Muslims within ideologies, their views about Islam change. What do they say? They say these are anarchy.

Wretched people with no share of humanity regard Islam as an anarchy. Who makes them say this? Those I just mentioned, people who cannot live Islam, unaware of themselves, make them say it.

Yes. Marry them, it says, and give them their mahr in a normal amount. The normal amount it mentions here: well, Hodja, he could not marry because of the mahr, right, free women; look, free women are one thing, slave women another. To free women you cannot give the mahr given to these. They of course ask you for much more as their mahr right. But as for slave women, slave women, they too, look, to have a home, to have a husband to shelter with, or to have children, may not even consider the mahr, and yet Allah has them given mahr. What is it? The minimum is 20 grams, I suppose, isn't it? Silver. Yes.

A trifling sum.

After marrying, after these marry, if they commit indecency, if these slave women or slaves commit indecency, to them half the punishment of free women is applied.

Look at our Lord's mercy. Now, a free woman is from a mother, from a father, from the same town, raised there. A slave woman, though, is a prisoner of war, or left alone and has taken refuge somewhere. Amid these worldly feelings she may be swept by various emotions. Amid these various emotions they can deceive her. They can lead her into indecency. So, since compared with such people, a free woman in that same place has very different feelings, Allah Almighty to these slave women and slaves gives half the punishment applied to the free woman. By our Lord's mercy.

Yes. This permission to marry a slave woman is for those among you who fear falling into sin. Actually, not marrying is better, but he is going to fall into sin, he cannot hold back, say; then there is permission. But being patient is better for you, it says. See how beautifully it says it. Being patient is better for a person. Being patient is better than marrying them. Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful, it says. How beautifully the verse says it. And we try to explain what Allah, our Lord, says. To people. These give people life. Which law can give this, the life Allah gives to people? Impossible.

Because Allah Almighty knows people's feelings. Knowing what they will do, before them, as a proof and a light, He has set His verses. So, the laws people make by their own reason, by their own lived feelings, are one thing; and Allah Almighty, since He knows what the people He created can do, making known to us in the best way the laws that all of them, the whole of them, need, is another. There is no comparing them with human laws.

Why can they never be compared? Let us touch on that too, and then the tafsir we wrote let us open. Let us read it. Not explain it, we have already made it plain. We will just read it as well. Now Allah Almighty created man very honourable.

What did we say? Allah Almighty created man very honourable. This man, created so honourable, will know his own place. What does it say anyway? Being patient is better for you; Allah is Most Forgiving and Most Merciful. From our Lord's mercy. Since the part of Himself He gave to man He gave to no other being in the universe, man is very honourable. Very honourable. How will he preserve this honour? From other animals, from created beings, how will he make his distinctness, his distinction? To him, protecting his repute and fame, his chastity, and his honour according to the life of the place he is in, so that he, in the best way, in the world, above all created beings, acts with justice, those laws of His, since Allah Almighty has made them known to people, the laws made deficiently by human reason, far above them. For example, for example, we are all human.

For our honour and dignity, our pride, our chastity and honour, for the integrity of the homeland: that is what we live for. The integrity of the homeland too. Because when a person loses his homeland, his honour perishes too. We see it in Iraq, here, there, everywhere. Yes. In this case, I went out on duty, went away. Or I went to another city for work.

Behind my back, God forbid, my wife did something evil.

The religious ruling has her stoned to death at once. Rajm. Allah protected my honour. Protected my good name.

I saved up my goods for a rainy day; a thief came and stole them. They cut off his hand.

They killed my father for no reason, killed my mother. They kill him too. Deterrent laws. Deterrent. Deterrent laws for people. Yet against this, Allah Almighty puts forward His (?).

A thief's hand is cut off when he has stolen three times and it is established. And for the killer, despite his killing, pardon by the one responsible for the victim He also recommends.

So, through deterrent laws, people finding life, protecting their good name and honour, their pride and dignity, their chastity, is one thing; being governed by laws made by human reason to satisfy their selfish pleasures is another. These can never be compared with each other. Now it is understood, I think.

A man who has reached marrying age, if to marry free believing women he has not the means, then to such men, from the slave women under their hands, that is, under the authority of some people, giving the women there to such young men, and saving the unmarried from sin, marrying them off is meritorious. Here His command, let him take from the slave women counted as your believing young daughters, is a sign of the value given to people. No human was created higher or more excellent than any other. Even if she is a slave woman, even if the punishment given to them is half that given to free women, feelings are one thing, being created human is another.

No human, as higher than any other, was created more excellent. Their ranks, toward Allah Almighty, concern nearness; ranks and excellence are by Allah Almighty's measure. For example, compared with a person at nafs al-ammara, a person at nafs al-lawwama is closer to Allah in rank. And compared with a person at nafs al-lawwama, a person at nafs al-mulhima, relative to nafs al-lawwama, is closer to Allah. And nafs al-mutmainna is closer than nafs al-mulhima. What is it? Nearness in terms of ranks. For example, the nearness between a non-Muslim and a Muslim, nearness to Allah: one is forsaken and alone in the hereafter; the other, by his Lord's mercy, after suffering that punishment, or after suffering the (?) of his offence, still attaining his Lord's mercy: that is different.

Yes. That is why Allah says: with the slave women under your hands, counted as your young and believing daughters, let them marry.

Not taking, taking secret lovers is a kind of fornication. A secret lover. This too is called zina.

The evil of a secret lover, how far does it go? The man has a child by her. The man hides that child of his from her. He shows his children neither to that woman nor to these. And the man dies. The man's child, with the children from his other wife, may marry. What happened? Sibling has married sibling. God forbid. Secret lovers. Yes.

For people to live with their honour, dignity and pride, behaviour that would cause suspicion about them or harm their chastity must be avoided.

Allah Almighty created people honourable. These people, created honourable, from every kind of suspicion will keep away. They will refrain from things that would harm them.

Yes. Then people, as servants the way Allah Almighty wants, their honour and dignity, their pride and chastity, they protect.

Allah Almighty knows our faith better than we do. Why does He know our faith better than we do? His saying, We know the secrets of your hearts: Allah Almighty, having made a covenant, and giving our desires and wishes, our will, to us as our destiny, Allah Almighty, within our destiny, has programmed all the burden He will load on us. We, within that time, that is, within our lifetime, unaware of what will befall us, within the unbearable burden of the covenant we gave, we begin to live. We begin to live our destiny. That is (?) why Allah Almighty knows best.

Therefore in His verse He says, you are all of one origin. Because each of us was created from the Prophet's soul. Creating the human factory from our father Adam and our mother Eve, in the realm of lahut He made a covenant with the souls He had created. The soul raised to barzakh, when its time comes, He sends to the world. And that person, in this (?) world, what kind of person he is, he proves. Yes.

Giving from the soul of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and from his soul creating people's souls, so: as human beings there is no difference among you, He says. Among us, as human beings, there is no difference at all. So, on condition that they live chastely, do not commit fornication, and do not take secret lovers, with their owners' permission, them, that is, the slave women, marry, and give their mahr in a normal way. Normal, that is, (?). Islam gives great importance to honour and dignity. Because these feelings and conduct set people apart from other created beings and (?) them. So, so that a person does not fall into sin, on condition of not taking secret lovers and not committing fornication, slave women may be married with their owners' permission.

With their owners' permission.

Allah Almighty created people dignified and honourable. So Allah Almighty, who loves people greatly, just as He does not want people's honour, pride and dignity to be toyed with, nor people to fall into a base and humiliated state among people, so in the hereafter He does not want them to meet punishment. If we are all of one origin, Allah Almighty, who wants no one toward anyone to (?), to mock them, to belittle them, with their pride not to toy, Allah Almighty also wants us in the hereafter not to meet punishment. Because we are all Allah's servants, and Allah does not intend injustice to what He created.

What does the verse say? We did not wrong you. You wronged your own selves, it says. Yes.

Moreover, those who take secret lovers spread immorality and fornication. That is why Allah Almighty does not permit taking secret lovers.

Fornication, in Islam, is an even worse, morally destructive act. Morally destructive.

So that such things are not resorted to, Allah Almighty to those who cannot be patient and whose means to marry free women do not allow it: you may marry slave women. As long as there is no immorality. So, in the old days, what we call the old days, that is, our forefathers, that is, when we say our forefathers, it is not the forefathers of whom Allah Almighty tells us they said, We found our forefathers on this path, not those. Our forefathers who lived the religion of Islam, since up to this time they were governed by Allah's verses, the religion of Islam to us they brought. They handed it over.

They entrusted it to our shoulders. But we have not been able to entrust the religion of Islam to the shoulders of those after us. To prevent immorality, they would take the forsaken, the helpless, under their own roofs, they would protect the people we call slave women. And with people who reached marrying age, or who could not marry, they would marry them off. That is greatness, that is fatherhood. And this is what Allah Almighty means by saying they are your daughters. Yes, but now people these things know, they know, yet neither fear Allah nor feel shame before people.

Yes, that is why secret lovers, taking lovers, Allah Almighty does not permit. Fornication, too, is in Islam a worse, morally destructive act. So that such things are not resorted to, Allah Almighty to those who cannot be patient and whose means to marry free women do not allow says: you may marry slave women. People: first a free woman; if their means do not suffice, slave women; if that fails, women of the People of the Book they may marry.

They may also marry from the People of the Book. If there is (?) of falling into sin; but being patient is more excellent.

But one does not marry mushriks. Allah Almighty says in the Quran: Do not marry mushriks. They call you to the Fire. According to this verse, when it is said one may marry from the People of the Book, at once they say, look, look, this verse was abrogated by this verse. That is, Allah Almighty, what He said once, contradicts with another verse; those who speak this way reveal that they know nothing of the verses. What does Allah Almighty say? If this were a human composition, in it, inconsistent verses and words would be found in plenty, it says.

About the Prophet (peace be upon him): he does not speak from desire. Would Allah Almighty, who sent down that verse, to one people, one people, say, Do not marry these, and to others, You may marry these, and so discriminate among His servants? Would that not contradict this verse? Whatever Allah said before, it is the same from pre-eternity, it says. Pay very close attention to the verses.

A mushrik is one thing, the People of the Book another. Mushriks are idolaters. And the People of the Book are those who in the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel believe. Even if they say God is three, they still know there is one Allah, but the others are complete idolaters. These you may marry, it says.

Since slave women are not as upright about their honour and dignity as free women, they may behave (?) toward their husbands. We explained these to you just now. Through their feelings. Because of their life, their surroundings, or people deceiving them.

Yes. Being used to serving others, they may let their own duties slip. Therefore, for people who will not fall into sin and can be patient, not marrying is better. Allah is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. Since Allah Almighty created people deficient in reason, when people, with the mistakes they made, ask Allah Almighty for pardon and forgiveness, since this fits the purpose of people's creation, Allah Almighty forgives people and has mercy on them. Why do mistakes fit the purpose of creation? See how beautifully the verses all confirm one another. Since Allah Almighty gave man a part of His essence, if man had never made a mistake, He would have created beings equal to His essence.

The man He created as a part of His essence: by creating him deficient in reason, that man's making mistakes, and through his deficiency knowing his helplessness, turning to his Lord and asking for pardon and forgiveness, that is what fits Allah Almighty's purpose in creating.