Al-Baqarah 172: Oh you who believe, eat from the clean and permissible provision We have given to you and be grateful to Allah if you only worship Allah.

Then look what Allah Almighty says: O you who believe! This time He addresses the believers. O you who believe! Of the provisions I have given you, eat the clean and halal, and give thanks to Allah, if it is Him you worship.

If you have pronounced the word of tawhid and been honored with Islam, we are obliged to fulfil Allah Almighty's command upon us. We must eat of the clean and halal provisions our Lord has given. eat the clean and halal and give thanks to Allah, if it is Him you worship. Now there are such deep meanings here that when He says, "Eat the clean and halal of the provisions I gave you," we went and said: bread is halal, onion is halal, garlic is halal, fish is halal, meat is halal, and we bought them; Allah made these halal for us, right? But if you swindled Ahmet, Mehmet, and seized his rights, his due, did that meat, that fish you bought, those provisions your Lord made halal for you, become halal? You ate haram, haram.

Because you seized the rights and due of this one and that one. Instead of that clean, halal provision, you gulped down haram. So we will watch ourselves. We will earn from the halal, we will secure our provision from the halal, from the halal.

What did we say? O you who believe, eat the provisions Allah Almighty gives from the halal. In the next verse Allah Almighty, stating that pork, carrion, blood and the meat of animals not slaughtered in Allah's name are haram, makes known that the meat of such animals must not be eaten. This is a matter within the outward Sharia ruling. We explain it like this to the general public. Within this Sharia ruling, halal provisions are, apart from pork and carrion, well, the meat of the animals He has bestowed on us. Or the provisions He has shown. Slaughtered in Allah's name – those slaughtered in other than Allah's name are also haram for people.

Besides this, do not mix haram into your earnings and, with your haram money, turn the impurities you bought into haram and eat them as haram. We add that too.

"What happens if I eat haram, Hodja?

I ate the fish and meat Allah Almighty (?), the eggs and vegetables He made halal. What happens?" If I, well, cut off someone else's provision, violated his rights and due, and went with his money and procured my provision, I ate haram. Look what happens when you eat haram. If haram provision mixes into the human body, a person's faith weakens. Does it weaken? It weakens. If you had faith, could you seize the rights and due of the person before you? Is this possible? You would fear Allah. Let's say I swindled Ahmet Efendi. Doesn't Ahmet Efendi have a family? While he goes to bed hungry at home, while his family goes to bed hungry at home, can I seize his money and gulp it down my own throat with pleasure?

Is this possible? If I can gulp it down, what else can this be but weakness of faith? Weakness of faith. What happens if faith is weak? Look, now it comes one after another.

A person's faith weakens and the person's heart darkens. The heart. People who eat without heeding halal and haram stuff themselves with food. Because they become addicted to lust and addicted to their stomach as well. Addicted to their stomach. People whose faith is weak. The more they eat, the more they want to eat. And the heart is right above the stomach. Above it, to the left. The heart. Imam al-Ghazali says: if you put a cauldron over a fire and a strong fire burns beneath it, even if it has no smoke, it blackens the bottom of the cauldron, he says. Likewise, in a person who eats too much, it gives the person heat.

And the heart is right above it. It blackens that heart just like that.

That is the harm of eating too much, too.

So what does the Prophet (peace be upon him) decree in the hadith? Get up when you are about to be full, he says.

"Won't we get fully full? So can't we eat (?)?" Pay attention. When you get up just as you are about to be full, once it starts digesting in your stomach, it fills that stomach and at once your hunger goes. A fullness of just the right consistency arises. Try this. You will get up when you are about to be full, but if you eat your fill and then get up, it bothers you, that stomach swells even more, its bloating bothers you. What beautiful customs they set. Eating too much also gives a person heat; it blackens his heart in this way. Haram provision tastes delicious to the human nafs. The more he eats it, the more the human nafs enjoys it, and do you know what he says? Because his faith is weak: (?) yes, what a fool, I swindled him like this and took his money, he says. And with his money, you went, he says: I bought this, I ate that, I did this, I did that, I did this, he says.

A person of faith cannot say this. A person of faith cannot say it. Don't you hear of such incidents? You do. So-and-so is a fool, I swindled him, he says. Well, I pinched some money, took his money, he says. He's an idiot anyway, he says. Well, if he is an idiot, a fool, and you are clever, why didn't you protect him? Isn't he your brother? That is your nafs and your weakness of faith: siding with Satan, following his track, you violated your Muslim brother's rights. You ate haram. And a person who talks like this eats that haram with joy, with full joy, as something delicious. He eats it with relish.

Yes. People who eat these become devoted to their throat in a way that gladdens their nafs, as I explained a moment ago. Because they eat so much, their hearts darken. To give an example: if we put a pot over a very strong fire, even if this fire has no smoke, from the strength of the fire beneath it the bottom of the pot blackens. The human nafs is like this. The heart lies right above a person's stomach. When a person eats too much, the stomach releases extra energy to digest it, which gives the person fire, and lethargy comes over him. A person's faith weakens, his heart darkens. He begins to act indifferently toward Allah Almighty's commands and prohibitions.

So eating too much is not good either.

In this respect, since Allah Almighty knows how the bodies He created and the nafs in them are to be reformed, He warns us. (?) halal provision brings the human nafs to purity and brings the person closer to Allah. When a person realizes that the money he earns was not earned unlawfully and the food he eats is not haram, his heart finds peace, and his love for and obedience to his Lord increase. In this respect Allah, the Possessor of Majesty and the Most Holy, says: Eat what is clean and halal, He decrees. If it is Him you worship, give thanks, He says. Give thanks. What will you say? O my Allah, my Lord, thanks be for these blessings You have given.

And while giving thanks, you will give thanks not with your tongue but from your heart. To be able to give thanks from your heart: when you put that food, that morsel, into your mouth,

and it comes to your mind that someone could not find work that day, wandered jobless until evening, came home without money, could not bring bread and provision to his family, that the children saw their father or mother come home without provision and went to bed hungry with their heads bowed – when that comes to your mind, can tears flow from your eyes?

That is thanks. It is the thanks of thanks. Look what Allah Almighty decrees. Would We ever diminish the wealth of one who gives thanks? He says. So, not so that this thankful person's wealth does not diminish, but: O my Lord, if You grant to me, I too will grant to people, to those in need – if you say that, it is even better.

So a person will give thanks from the heart. Not from the tongue. "O Allah, thanks be." (?) From the tongue. It will be from the heart.