Al-Baqarah 187: It has been made permissible to you to approach your women on the night of fasting. They constitute a cover for you as you constitute a cover for them. Since Allah knows that you will commit evil against yourselves, Allah accepted your repentance and forgave you. Approach your women on the nights of Ramadan and desire what Allah has determined for you. Eat and drink until the white string of the morning is distinguishable from the black string and then, complete the fasting from fajr until the evening. During the times when you go into itiqaf in the mosques, do not approach to women. These are the borders of Allah; do not cross these borders. This way, Allah reveals Allah’s verses upon mankind so that they (the believers) will abstain.

On the nights of the fast, to approach your wives has been made lawful for you. They are a garment for you, and you are a garment for them. Now Allah Almighty, who created us, our nafs, as we said, we defined the nafs before: that which eats, drinks, moves, can change place, has intercourse and reproduces, and constantly tries to take with worldly desire, wants to possess the world and wants to assert superiority in everything, wants to be egoistic; He created the nafs with such a feeling. That is the nafs. If the spirit takes charge of it by Allah's command, if it brings it under its rule, the person rises.

He bows his neck to Allah's commands and struggles with his own nafs. Sir, if he brings it under his rule, he is free from the evil paths the nafs would show him, and he rises in Allah's religion. So, a person's nafs, sir, since during that one month of fasting it cannot bear not lying with one's wife, for some people, not for every person of course, those exceptions do not break the rule, in this case, to prevent their disbelief, He shows them easy ways. What does it say? On the nights of the fast, approaching your wives has been made lawful for you, it says. Yes. They are a garment for you, and you are a garment for them.

What is a garment? This garment we are wearing. How is she my garment? She is my garment of piety. And I am her garment of piety. If she does not turn to someone else with her desire and wish, and I do not turn to someone else with my desire and wish, and since we are lawful for each other, within Allah's command we will complete each other, and Allah Almighty will cleanse us of sins. By giving us what is lawful, we are cleansed of sins. (?) for that reason she is a garment for us. That is, a garment that covers our private parts, or covers things that would lead us to evil, a garment. And we are a garment for her.

For this reason Allah Almighty grants people ease.

Since Allah knew that you would do wrong in your souls, He accepted your repentance. Look how beautifully He says it. He knows we will do wrong in our souls, that we won't be able to be patient. Even if not with someone else, if our Lord forbade it, perhaps they would sneak off with their wives. In that case they would fall into sin and go outside Allah's command. Within such a weak nafs, perhaps he would say, O Allah, You created my nafs like this, my nafs was this weak, I could not bear it, he would say. Perhaps a person... So Allah Almighty, because He loves people very much, grants them ease.

Sir, He has forgiven you, it says. What did He forgive? And He made this lawful for you on these nights of Ramadan. He made lying with your wives lawful. On the nights of Ramadan approach your wives, it says. Seek what Allah has decreed for you. What did Allah Almighty decree for us? A blessed child. Their, sir, our lineage to die out, to extend our lineage, that is, to be able to bring a chain of people after us. We are a human factory, aren't we? From our first father Adam and our mother Eve He set up the factory and created the spirits. He raised them to the world of barzakh. What does He do with the spirits to come from that world of barzakh, with those produced from that factory?

He brings them into the world. And those people prove what kind of people they are. So we too, after us, for our children in old age, sir, or in a way that they will help us, say to Allah Almighty, my Lord, grant us good generations, good children. We pray to Allah Almighty. Yes. On the nights of Ramadan approach your wives. Seek what has been decreed for you by Allah. Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct from the black thread. We said this before too; we said that the white thread and the black thread: 45 minutes before sunrise, one side is completely, as if, like this, a hemisphere, as if there were a curtain in between, and one side completely black and one side completely bright white. That is the white thread from the black thread.

Some say until the black spool and the white spool separate. So these two parts. Then, when it starts to drop below 45 minutes, that is, when the time to sunrise starts to drop to 40 minutes, 35 minutes or so, this darkness disperses and a dappled light appears everywhere. Allah Almighty says, eat and drink until this time. Until the time when, sir, the white thread is separated from that black thread, until then. Now, some people have no clock. Sir, they can't know. Or the sky is overcast. They can't see. What did they do? The great ones, our fiqh scholars, said, let us tie this to imsak, they said.

To imsak. What will we do? To imsak. The day of that day begins, doesn't it, the morning time of that day begins with imsak, and right away the calls to prayer are recited in Ramadan. Along with imsak. And the Shafi'is perform the prayer 15 minutes after the call to prayer recited at the time of imsak. They make ablution and perform their prayers within 15 minutes. The Hanafis stand for prayer 20 to 25 minutes before sunrise, that is, 20 to 25 minutes before the sun rises. And they finish the prayer five or ten minutes before sunrise, and in this way they have performed their worship. All of them are right.

So in Ramadan, since the day ends with imsak, that is, since that day fasting will be kept, the previous day ends with imsak. A new day begins. Before entering that day, sir, what do we do? Forty-five minutes before, an hour before, half an hour before, we get up and eat until imsak, and at imsak, when the calls to prayer are recited, we immediately rinse our mouths. In general we begin the prayer, the fast. And after performing the prayers, lie down for a while, says the Prophet. After you have performed your prayer and eaten your meal at suhur, lie down for a while. The good side of this, the good side of lying down for a while, is that that day people do not feel the heat or this warmth from the warmth or the heat, they don't get thirsty.

Their mouths, their lips don't dry out after sleeping for a while. In this way they have fulfilled the duty, the duty of fasting. But imsak has come in. Sir, what did he do? Our elders say, quickly, quickly, within 5 to 10 minutes, within 15 minutes, eat. Why? Because Allah Almighty says, eat until the white thread and the black thread, at imsak 45 minutes before, that is, 45 minutes before sunrise. Again, sir, he is applying the verse. There is no harm in this either. No harm. But as I said a moment ago, for uniformity and for the public and according to the rule of fiqh, the rule that people, the great ones, set, the fast begins with imsak. But this is not the verse.

The verse is the white thread and the black thread; in between you can eat. 5 to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes after imsak you can eat your meal. Yes, what does it say? Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct from the black thread. Then complete the fast until evening. Do not have relations with women while you are in retreat for worship in the mosques. What is this? I'tikaf. Those who (?) it: if in a town no one enters it, it becomes obligatory for all of us. If one person enters it, it falls away from the others. The person who enters this i'tikaf lifts this duty from the others. And because he saves that town, he is also called a conqueror.

These people cannot approach their wives.

During this worship they cannot approach their wives. They have withdrawn to the mosques. Why do they withdraw to the mosque? They enter i'tikaf in a mosque where the Friday prayer is performed. I'tikaf. Because in this form of worship they cannot go outside and even look at a woman's face. That is why they only remember Allah in the mosques, worship through the night until morning, and withdraw to rest in the daytime. This is i'tikaf. This is called i'tikaf. These are the limits set by Allah. Do not come near these limits. Thus Allah makes His verses clear to people, so that they may be mindful.

Yes.

Let us also read our tafsir. And explain it too. Our Lord who created us, since He knew that people would not be able to master their nafs, has made approaching women in Ramadan lawful. With the verse in which He declares, they are a garment for you, Allah Almighty, our Lord, who knows that the lustful feelings He created in the human nafs will steer people to sin, that people cannot bear it and will commit sin, says: in the month of Ramadan there is no sin for you in approaching your wives who are lawful to you. Because they are your garments, He declares. Yes, that is, these are garments that will protect from sin.

From sin. Now, in this outward garment, what place has our Lord made private for men? Between the navel and the knee is private. Well then, if this person wears something shorter than this, he falls into sin. He goes outside his Lord's command. So it shows the covering of women too. So covering other than that leads that person into sin. Into sin. And so the human nafs, if because of lustful feelings it turned to something else, would fall into sin. That is why they are our garments. And we are their garments. People's garments are a piece of cloth covering people's bodies and their private parts, a piece.

With these people cover their private parts. When moving among people, by covering their unseemly parts they preserve their respectability in a decent and dignified state. So, when people have relations with their wives, they dull their lustful feelings. People save themselves from turning to adultery. For this reason Allah Almighty likens people's wives to a libas, that is, to a garment. Just as people who have no garment on their backs and go about with their private parts uncovered lose their respectability and are looked down on among people, so too people, by falling into this state through resorting to adultery, both spreading immorality and opposing Allah's commands, just as they increase their wrong against their own selves, their state, to the state of people left stark naked, is likened.

What a beautiful simile we have made here. In the same way, women too, in terms of desire, are in need of a man. Their having relations with their husbands, under whose lawful marriage they are, breaks the lustful feelings created in the human nafs, and strengthens the family bonds between woman and man. It strengthens their love for each other. We say that by saying, they are a garment for you, and you are a garment for them, Allah Almighty, by giving the garment as an example of honour and chastity in the family, of human dignity and self-respect, has described it so beautifully.

Since Allah knew that you would do wrong to yourselves, He accepts your repentance and forgives you.

This verse was revealed on the following occasion. In the early days of Islam, before this verse came, those keeping the Ramadan fast would eat and drink until the night prayer. They would eat and drink until the night prayer. Then they would not eat again until the evening of the next day.

That is, they would eat and drink between the evening and the night prayer. After that they would not eat again.

Some people, when they had relations with their wives at night, would feel remorse and tell the Prophet about the situation. So the verse was revealed upon this, it came down. Allah Almighty, knowing that people would not be able to master their nafs and would do wrong, made it lawful for them to have relations with their wives in the month of Ramadan. He also accepted people's repentance. Approach your wives in the month of Ramadan, seek what Allah has decreed for you. In the verse, Allah Almighty means the following by this verse. By people approaching their wives in the month of Ramadan, Allah Almighty, in pre-eternity, which person will He give in trust to which person?

Will He give a girl or will He give a boy? This is with our Lord. Ask your Lord for what Allah has decreed for you, He declares. That is, my Lord, from what is lawful, give whichever is good for me, give that. Sir, they wrote. Allah knows what is in the wombs, it says. Allah Almighty, in the verse, they wrote. The old ones: is it a girl? Is it a boy? Well, today, is it a girl or a boy? It is known. So only Allah knew what is in the wombs, did He? So people who interpret the verses according to their own minds, according to their minds, with the knowledge and ignorance of people of that time, or let us say with their social life, because technology had not developed, understood them that way.

And it was written that way; later, later, well, now people are in doubt. Well, they say, today, wasn't it that only Allah knew? Today technology also knows whether it is a girl or a boy. Yes. So what now? Allah Almighty, in every age, every hundred years, sends a mujtahid, the Qutb al-A'zam. This every hundred years, every two hundred years (?). He is also a mujtahid. They come. A renewer in religion. That is, when you say renewer, Allah forbid, not with a word above Allah's verses. Those falsehoods, those superstitions, or, according to the times, by Allah Almighty having the verses opened up, they prove our Lord's being free from any deficient attribute.

For example, when He says Allah knows what is in the wombs, our Lord, from that world of barzakh, will He take a girl or a boy? Will He place a girl or a boy in that womb? Allah knows this. That is the meaning of the verse in which He says only Allah knows what is in the wombs. Will a girl come from there or a boy? This is within Allah's knowledge. According to that person's situation, since we are tested with one another, sir, in this case, since He will not load on his back a burden he cannot bear, will He give that person a girl or a boy, with which one he will be tested in the best way, and that child too will be a child with him in the best way, will be, um, tested, and in the best way they will prove to each other what kind of people they are, Allah knows this.

Accordingly, He takes a girl or a boy from there and places it in that womb. That is what is in Allah's knowledge. Not whether that one in the womb will be a girl or a boy. Yes.

Eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct from the black thread. This verse defines the time the fast begins. Toward morning, after (?), when forty, forty-five minutes remain before sunrise, if one looks toward where the sun rises, it is as if the world were two hemispheres, one black darkness, one pure white, as if daylight. That is the black spool and the white spool, or the black thread and the white thread being together; this is the time. Eat and drink until this time, He declares. This phenomenon disappears from the sky a few minutes later. In fiqh, so that people would not err or be confused, since with overcast and cloudy skies they cannot know this, and would move the time of eating back and forth, the scholars chose the time of imsak to settle their unity on one decision, and said the fast begins with imsak.

It being this way is also good for people.

Then complete the fast until evening, the fast. The evening time is the time of sunset. The evening call to prayer is recited with the setting of the sun. Keep your fast until the time of this call to prayer. How is the evening time known? As soon as the sun sets, a redness appears in the sky. That is the time of sunset, it says. That is, evening time. Evening has come in. Sir, here the call to prayer is recited. And since evening time comes in with the call to prayer, your fast is broken. You break your fast. You eat your meal. By mistake, through error, one breaks your fast. One eats. If you fill your stomach and then remember that you are fasting, don't say, oh no, I ate, has my fast been broken?

Since you ate by mistake, your fast is not broken. Rinse your mouth and continue your fast. When you remember you are fasting while eating, take the morsel out of your mouth at once without swallowing it, and continue your fast, rinsing your mouth. If you break the fast consciously and deliberately, in place of one day of the Ramadan fast you keep a total of sixty-one days of expiation fasting in a row. According to the verse in which He says, since Allah knew that you would do wrong to yourselves, He accepted your repentance and forgave you, too,

it was revealed on the following occasion. In the early days of Islam... do not have relations with women while you are in retreat for worship in these mosques. These are the limits set by Allah. Do not come near these limits. In the last ten days of the month of Ramadan, i'tikaf is entered in the mosques. For the people living in this town, living in a town, i'tikaf is obligatory for all of them. But if one person in that town enters i'tikaf, it falls away from the others. The Prophet used to spend the last ten days of Ramadan in i'tikaf. So when we turn to such worship, having relations with women is a prohibition that Allah has placed upon people.

In i'tikaf people reform the nafs, and by continuing in congregational prayer every second of theirs is counted with Allah as if they were praying. Since such worship is undertaken voluntarily, for the reform of the nafs one does not come near the limits Allah has set. For this reason Allah Almighty declares, do not come near these limits. Thus Allah makes His verses clear to people, so that they may be mindful. In this way Allah Almighty teaches people what they did not know. Thus, so that people are governed by the verses of Allah Almighty and, without resorting to sin, preserving their rewards, pass on to the hereafter and find life there.

So the world is a place of testing in this case. Allah Almighty's law over people, we call it the sharia ruling, of the rulings. So Allah constantly teaches us things in people's favour. In people's favour, and to bring us to life, He shows the way with His verses. In this case the world is temporary, while the hereafter is everlasting. In this temporary world each of us has come to hold ourselves, through our deeds, as witness before Allah Almighty to what kind of person we are. In this case our Lord warns us. Do not overstep the limits Allah has set. What happens if I overstep them? Then I wrong my own self.

You, if you do not listen to the command of the One who created you, will suffer your punishment. If you don't listen to the laws a state has set and act against the law, they catch you and throw you straight into prison. And Allah Almighty's prison is Hell, the place of punishment. So do not be deceived by this transient world's rosy appearance to you.

This does not mean: do not work for the world. Do not earn it, do not take it. Lie on your back, sir; it doesn't mean lie down. What does Allah Almighty say in (?)? Develop your world. Work hard. So that your enemies may fear you. You will find life. Or else, He says, they will envy you and become Muslims. In this case we will work hard in the world. But we will not forget the owner of the wealth. And we will not forget to surrender that wealth to its owner wholeheartedly. In this case we are the trustees of that wealth, and within that trust, by giving one fortieth of the surplus sustenance He has given us as zakat, showing that we have no craving for the world, cleansing the unlawful things unknowingly mixed into our wealth, and fulfilling our Lord's command by giving zakat, by fulfilling the command of Allah Almighty who commands it, we show that we have performed our duty of servanthood to our Lord.

And when we migrate from this transient world to the hereafter, the abode of eternal bliss, just as at least an official who has done his duty, standing before his commander or his superior with a clear, unblemished face, gains confidence from it, so we too, if we fulfil our Lord's command in this world, are governed by Allah's commands, and do not overstep the limits our Lord has set, with that bearing, in our Lord's presence, under His mercy, taking refuge in Him, we will attain the Gardens Allah has promised us. God willing. Yes.