Al-Baqarah 168: Oh mankind, eat from all things on earth on the condition that they are permissible (halal) and clean; and do not follow the path of Shaytan because he surely is a clear enemy to you.

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 168, what does it say? Allah Almighty: O people!

Eat of what is on the earth, on condition that it is lawful and pure. Of the things on earth that Allah Almighty has made lawful for us eat. Where? He made it known to us within the sharia, within the law of the sharia.

Do not follow the footsteps of Satan, for he is truly a clear enemy to you, it says.

Where does Satan's enmity toward mankind come from?

Allah Almighty creates our father Adam, and after giving him of His spirit He tells Iblis and the angels: prostrate to Adam. The angels prostrate, Satan puffs himself up. You created him from clay and me from fire.

Fire purifies clay, clay does not purify fire; he sets off on a game of logic. Because he went against Allah's command, he is cursed. Then Iblis says: give me respite until the Day of Judgment. Allah Almighty says: you are among those given respite. Then: let me see people, and let them not see me. I have given you that too, He says. I will roam in their blood vessels. I have given you that too, He says. And I will set traps before those who come to You, I will keep Your servants from coming to You, he says. Allah Almighty says: if they follow you, then I have given them to you, take them, they are yours.

So Iblis's enmity toward mankind comes from his seeing himself as superior to man. Iblis was one of those who worshipped most in his time. One of those who worshipped Allah. Iblis, Satan.

Before mankind was created; but our spirits had been created earlier, of that he had no knowledge.

In this case Iblis, by seeing himself as superior to the created, with that attribute, says: on the earth too, for Allah Almighty, there is not a span of soil, he says, that I should (?) my head on in prostration to the Most Merciful, he says. On account of his being all worship, they name him Haris, the name of the Accursed One.

That is, all worship.

In this way he rises to being the teacher of the angels. He rises, but people who cannot use their intellect, or created beings, if they cannot use their intellect, and oppose the command of their Creator and turn their backs, then they fall into loss. In this case, what Iblis is unaware of: that earlier, of Hz. Muhammad (peace be upon him), our master, the One who created the light; who, before even creating the worlds, created the light of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and then gave him of His spirit, Allah Almighty; our Lord, who from the light of the Prophet created these heavens and the earth and what is between them; and by giving the Prophet of His spirit His creating the prophets and the spirits of their peoples, the spirits of the prophets' peoples; his not knowing that all beings were created from the light of the Prophet.

Being in ignorance, growing arrogant, forgetting where and from whom he was created, his arrogance toward mankind and his harshness toward his Creator. His turning his back, his going against His command. So in this case Satan, with feelings like ego, pride, grandeur, is an enemy to people. By seeing his own existence as superior. What does Allah Almighty say? O people! Eat of what is on the earth, on condition that it is lawful and pure. What are pure provisions? What Allah Almighty has made lawful for us.

Others, since they are outside our Lord's command, like pork, carrion, blood and such. Or, amid afflictions like drink, gambling, adultery, the provision Allah Almighty has made lawful, their eating it with drink, I mean, with things Allah does not want. These are people who, following Satan's footsteps, together with their nafs, oppose Allah's commands, people. What does it say? Do not follow Satan's footsteps, for he is a clear enemy to you. What did we write in our tafsir? Allah Almighty has placed all His creations at people's command. All created things, that is, when you say all created things: in the world, in the world created things; otherwise, when you say all created things, the angels also come into it, other beings come into it too; surely there are no angels at people's command; even if there are jinn and such, people's; so that it does not (?) to Allah Almighty, these people, what is with these, He says; some people follow jinn, and some jinn follow people, He says. So here, when we say all His creations, He gives what He created on earth to man's command.

Because man is the caliph of the earth. Caliph. So if he is the caliph of the earth, Allah Almighty's creations, His creations on earth, are at man's command.

He made known to them what is lawful and what is forbidden. To whom? To people. Well, what is lawful and forbidden He made known. According to this verse, the lawful and forbidden, briefly, we will touch on, we said. In the verses ahead, more broadly, the lawful and forbidden we will explain to you, we said. The forbidden things we can gather under three groups. The first group: forbidden foods. We will open these up. In the second group, unjust gains that mix into our work.

In the third group, forbidden drinks and intoxicating substances.

The forbidden things in the first group, that is, what are these forbidden foods: what Allah Almighty has forbidden, pork, carrion, blood, and animals not slaughtered in the name of Allah. Not slaughtered in the name of Allah. Slaughtered in the name of other than Allah. What does that mean? It means not slaughtered in Allah's name. Those slaughtered in the name of other than Allah are forbidden to people. What is this slaughtering in the name of other than Allah? To idols. Offered to idols. Yes.

Allah Almighty has forbidden these to people. And in the pig there are certain diseases; in the pig there is trichina. Even if you boil this trichina above a hundred degrees, it doesn't die. In this case that trichina passes to people and causes disease. For this reason pork has been forbidden to man. For the sake of human health. Well, why did Allah Almighty put this in this animal? Allah Almighty created 17,000 worlds. These 17,000 worlds cleanse one another. Like the gears of a clock. On earth, with some animals missing, with their lines dying out, the balance of the earth is disturbed. For this reason, to be able to maintain that balance on earth, the lines of those that died out they are breeding.

We explained this in our previous lesson. With the lines of some animals, I mean cheetahs, dying out, some large-bodied monkeys appearing and fouling the earth. Then they understand that everything has a wisdom. This pig too eats everything in front of it, carrion, filth, everything. That trichina, against what it eats, is in that pig a protection, a protection for the pig. And Allah Almighty, the cleaning of the filth on earth, the eating of the carrion, the cleansing of the world, He provided through the pig. And He said, don't eat this animal. How beautiful. He protected the human body here.

He protects us. And what does it say in the verse? I will call you to account for the way you used the trusts I gave you, He says. What is that trust? Your bodies. The trusts given to us. Yes. What are we saying? Because there are certain traits in pigs and these traits pass to people, Allah Almighty has forbidden pork. We passed over this briefly here. Also, because the trichina in pork passes to people and their health is damaged, Allah has forbidden pork to people. Now, we say there are certain traits in pigs. What are these traits? Pigs mate with one another without male and female claiming each other.

They are not jealous of their females. They have such traits. In this case, eating their meat, such traits arising in people who oppose Allah's command too, non-Muslims not being jealous of their spouses and, in carrying on with one another, living a so-called civilization, in fact unaware that they harm human dignity, saying 'I live civilization', they become subject to this verse of Allah Almighty: They are like four-legged beasts roaming the earth, it says. Indeed, in their course they are even more astray, it says.

Yes. The verses (?).

Blood too is a filth. We say pork, carrion, blood, you see. Why? Blood is filth.

A person's falling ill comes about through germs in the blood. The germ infects the blood directly. In blood there are red and white cells. The red cells give blood its color. The white cells, against the germ that would enter the blood, that is, the human body, serve as soldiers, defend, and try to keep it out of the body. If the germ comes in strong and starts eating the white cells, the human body becomes weak and falls ill. So you go to the doctor, and the medicine he gives you is that germ's dead form; the dead germ he injects into your body. The white cells, by eating this dead germ, immediately build immunity against that germ.

This time they eat the living ones too. So the person regains health. The white cells increase. It keeps the human body in (?) again. So because germs circulate in the blood, again Allah Almighty, to protect the human body, has forbidden blood too. Blood too is forbidden. We said blood too is a filth. Germs mix into the blood circulating in the veins of humans and animals. These germs make people and animals ill, and those who drink this blood also catch these diseases. For this reason we said blood too is forbidden. We are going over all these briefly. We said we would open these up for you in the tafsirs.

(?) we are opening them up. Now, why, when we slaughter an animal, do we make sure its blood spurts out? Its left three legs, that is, the left back leg and the two front legs we tie, its right back leg we leave free; no, since we lay it on its right side, we leave its left back leg free, right? Right faces the qibla; when he lays it on its right, when he lays it on its right, the left leg stays up, the left leg stays up, not the right. Ah, it stays, well, right. The right leg stays up. Now why do we leave one of its legs free? Why don't we tie all of them? When we slaughter the animal, the blood starts to flow.

That animal kicks from the pain of its life. When it kicks, its legs are tied, you see, its right back leg is free. That keeps pumping the blood. It makes the heart work. And the heart keeps pumping the blood. It makes it flow to the last drop. That is why, when we slaughter the animal, we don't cut the head off at once. Between these throat bones there is the life vein. After that blood is finished, we bend its head back a little, fully. We cut the life vein. The blood is finished now. Why? We wait for its blood to come out. If that animal has a disease, as long as the blood stays in that animal's body, that meat will draw its nourishment from that blood anyway.

Those germs will pass to that meat and make you ill too when you eat its meat. For this reason, in Islam, when an animal is slaughtered its blood must completely flow out. Today, so that the meat is tasty, by the stunning method, by stunning the animal on the forehead, by hitting it, those who kill the animal without cutting its throat, as carrion, these fall into the carrion category. Well, directly, since in that animal the blood does not flow, the dead animal's meat draws that blood. Supposedly he will eat tasty meat. He eats that meat together with the blood Allah has forbidden. He makes forbidden to himself what Allah has made lawful.

In a verse Allah Almighty also says: who makes the pure provision Allah made pure forbidden to himself? This is how they make it forbidden. Yes.

And carrion is an animal that dies without being slaughtered, without its blood flowing. Like what the disbelievers slaughter today with (?). Since germs are in the blood, an animal not slaughtered and whose blood is not drained is not eaten. The germs in its blood spread to the meat in its body, and in a short time the animal's meat becomes infected. For this reason the meat of an animal slaughtered without its blood drained is also forbidden.

In this case, animals torn apart by a beast of prey are forbidden. Except an animal torn by a beast of prey but not yet dead, which you reach and slaughter. A beast tore it, the animal isn't dead, you slaughter it, you reach it, you slaughter it, these are excepted, this you can eat.

The forbidden things in the second group are forbidden things that mix into our work. These are unjust gains. If we were to count some of them: interest, interest, extortion, theft, gambling, embezzling money, and many forbidden things we could count. Yes, the third group's forbidden things are drinks and intoxicating substances. Those who refrain from these are people who refrain from what Allah has forbidden. That is, people who observe Allah Almighty's legal ruling, who to our Lord's command submit. From this it is understood that, because Allah Almighty loves people very much, so that they can live healthily, by teaching us how His creations are to be eaten and drunk, how to work, He protects our health.

What's it to us? What's it to us?

What harm does drink do to my body? So many people drink, and what happens? Look. The harm of drink to the human body. The moment even a single drop of alcohol enters a person's body, clotting occurs in the blood. Gentlemen, clotting in the blood. With the clotting of blood, the blood going to the brain, to the capillaries, goes with difficulty, strains the heart. When blood doesn't pass through some of those capillaries, it causes a numbness in the brain, the person gets drunk. Drunkenness starts from here. And the brain is affected in its normal functioning, so he talks nonsense.

Plus, with the alcohol entering the heart, with the clotting, with the blood's clotting, with the heart working above its normal pressure, the heart valves are damaged, and so heart disease arises. Did we have heart trouble? Did Muslims have heart trouble? I was a child; 'he died of the heart', where is the heart, we'd say, and our elders would say: to us too it will come, it will come to us too. They used to say that, it will come to us too. Indeed it came. Why? If drink is here and there, if people live by what Allah prohibited, in time these things will happen.

Well, doesn't someone who doesn't drink get heart disease too? Hodja, you will ask. He does. Can we tie this to drink? We can tie it to Allah's religion. Like what?

Taking ablution prevents heart disease. Taking ablution five times a day, wiping your head, washing the backs of your neck, your ears, your feet, washing your hands up to the elbows, washing your face (?), putting water in your nose and mouth (?) they examine it, it truly prevents heart disease. (?) Isn't it? No. You don't do this either. Of course you'll get heart disease one day. You'll get it. There is no way around it. So, they don't have us take ablution for nothing, nor have us pray for nothing. Always so that our body stays healthy and also, proving that we carry out Allah's commands through actual deeds, we bring this verse into manifestation: I have made you a witness over the other prophets, and your community over the other communities, He says.

For me to be held as witness over other communities, I must live by Allah's command. First, I must perform my first prayer. I must perform my prayer. That is why prayer is the pillar of the religion. Prayer, the pillar of the religion. Yes. What beautiful verses (?). Our Lord, for us, for our healthy life, that the world is a guesthouse and that the eternal abode of bliss is the realm of the hereafter, He reminds us. With what? Every soul shall taste death and your return is to Me, He says.

So this realm is temporary, a guesthouse. Just as a person roams about in his dream and on waking says, oh, it was a dream, a person's roaming about in the world, he will understand when the soul reaches the throat. When that door of repentance closes, Allah Almighty will show him the places he came to. Then he will say 'woe is me'. But the journey to a realm with no return will begin. So, we say, O man, wake up.

Wake up. Where? Where is your place? And whom do you serve?

Yes. From this we understand that, because Allah loves people very much, so that they can live healthily, by teaching us how His creations are to be eaten and drunk, how to work, He protects our health. If we pay attention to the lawful and forbidden like this, we will have obeyed Allah Almighty's command, for our Lord declares: do not follow Satan's footsteps. Yes, do not eat what Allah Almighty has forbidden as if lawful and turn away from Allah, we said. Because Satan is a clear enemy to people. He always commands people to evil. He commands people to rebel against Allah. Yes.

So, we say, Allah Almighty with His verses holds such a light before people. Just as He protects them from every kind of evil, by making known what is good for the human body and what is not, the ways for people to live their lives healthily and soundly for a lifetime He shows to people. In this case, Allah Almighty's command, those who do not listen to Allah Almighty's command, who ruin their health by resorting to the forbidden, to every kind of affliction fall prey. Notice today, all diseases pass from non-Muslims to Muslims. The source of diseases is non-Muslims.

Is there no disease in Islam? Allah Almighty, of His creation, Allah Almighty who created this body, what it will need and what it will be nourished with, He has made known in His legal ruling. As long as I live by my Lord's legal ruling, if diseases enter this body of mine, it is the person inviting it himself. With what? By living without carrying out our Lord's command. One, if I live without carrying out His command, as a non-Muslim of course, the legal ruling, Allah protect us, outside the legal ruling if I live, if I live with filth like pork, carrion, blood, if I eat what Allah Almighty said not to eat,

we breed unknown germs in the body and spread those germs to the world. What is it? This: our not eating what our Lord has forbidden us. If we eat, what happens? It becomes the source of disease.

But, I mean, if you say I never stepped outside Allah's command but I didn't live Islam properly and (?), I still get sick, look what Allah Almighty says in the verse: germs are My soldiers, I send them to whoever wants, He says. They have translated this wrongly too: I send them to whom I want, He says. Not whom He wants. Whoever wants. Why whoever wants? If you don't live by your Lord's command, if you live in stress and depressions, if you don't put your trust in the calamities that come to you, don't say it is my Lord's test for me, but fall into stress and, well, rebel against your Lord and live in this depression, then you have invited that disease into your own body yourself.

Why do we say that, in (?), that person has put his trust in Allah and submitted to what comes from his Lord. Our Lord does not load on our backs a burden we cannot bear, he said, and I am in a test, God willing I will win this test in my Lord's hands, he said. He put his trust in Allah, and perhaps he will find peace in this and will not fall prey to diseases.

One of the secrets of living healthily is living peacefully. Yes.

Bilal Efendi asks, what time will the talk start? The talk has long since started. Bilal Efendi, if there is a problem with your internet, if you can't listen on your computer, try to fix the problem on your computer.

Among seafood, are things like lobster and shrimp forbidden, Hodja? What? Lobster, shrimp, are these forbidden, Hodja? Squid, octopus. The religion of Islam does not eat some seafood. For example, like lobster, like mussels, with mussels. And this (?), the mussel. Yes. Well, eating these is forbidden in our religion. There is shrimp, Hodja; from shrimp there is squid, Hodja; octopus. These, octopus, all in the same class, octopus and so on. Those are not eaten in our religion. Even the shark, which is a kind of fish, is not eaten. Shrimp is like that? The same, my child. These fall into that legged category of ours, the forty-legged category; these are forbidden in our religion. But today, because they're very tasty, they eat them; let them eat, they eat.

From the sea, Allah Almighty has offered you various fish, various. Whatever fish there are, eat those. No, they must eat the forbidden (?); they eat slugs, supposedly there is a lot of (?) nourishment, snails, Allah protect us.