Al-Baqarah 195: Spend from your possessions on the path of Allah and do not put yourself in danger with your own hands. Act in the best way; Allah likes the muhsineen (those who commit the best of acts).

In Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 195, what does our Lord say? Spend your wealth in the way of Allah and do not throw yourselves with your own hands into danger. Do good. Allah loves the honest, it says.

Who? With their wealth and their lives they buy Paradise, says Allah Almighty. With their wealth: the generous, the rich. Those who buy Paradise by giving Allah what Allah gave. Paradise. But not from people. Pay attention. Paradise is not bought from a human being. As priests sold Paradise to people. As some (?) in Paradise, God forbid, may Allah protect us. Who are they, then? Those who for Allah give charity to Allah's servants, to those in need, and who personally spend their wealth for Allah themselves. Those who help mosques, charitable institutions, Quran courses as much as they can. Those who give for Allah to the destitute, orphans, stranded travelers; those who in war strive with their wealth and property, who give their money to the army, as provisions bought, as weapons.

These are us giving our Lord the wealth our Lord gave us. And in return, our Lord selling us His Paradise, the place He promised. Selling Paradise. You buy it with these. He gives to you, He gives you His Paradise. And with their lives, who? The martyrs. The martyrs buy it.

Yes.

Allah Almighty, who willed His Being to be known unseen, sent people to the material world. He willed His Being to be known unseen. Why did Allah Almighty, unseen, send us to this world, send us into the unseen? In the world of Lahut we saw our Lord, we are His exact likeness, His likeness. Therefore those who fell into pride and arrogance, who saw in themselves ego and whim, who saw grandeur, expected the Lord of their own imagination and turned their backs on Allah. Allah Almighty says in His verse: My Beloved, do not mind their calling you a liar; in their time they betrayed Me too. Allah Almighty, who leaves people within their own wishes to their own destinies, who leaves them free within their will, their partial will, gave each person their desire and wish as their destiny.

So that no one may say: My Allah, You showed me Your Being in that world, I could not recognize You as my Lord; had You sent me to a hidden world, I would have known You there. That is why we say: Allah Almighty, who willed His Being to be known unseen, sent people to the material world, we say.

The meaning of this sentence is what I have explained. He gave people wealth and property, gave them children, dealing with them through His attribute Rahman, and as long as they live, throughout their lives, He took it upon Himself to provide their sustenance.

Here is the verse: er-rızku alallah. Allah will give sustenance. This is what this verse means. In fact we are writing many verses here. Allah Almighty, who gives children, lineage and descent. People boasting of their lineage and descent. The meanings of many verses gathered into sentences. Er-rızku alallah: Allah is the giver of sustenance. In this situation people covet wealth.

If a person does not spend in the way of Allah the wealth Allah has bestowed on him, what is beyond his need, he wrongs himself.

People are in a test in this world. All wealth and property belong to Allah. Here is a verse: Or do you own even a speck of your world? If that were so, you would be given nothing of your world. That is, are you able to create a speck?

If you had created a speck, you would meet your own needs, and I would give you nothing, He says. So whatever is created, from the speck to the globe, is created by our Lord, and all these creations were created in need of Allah. Through our Lord's attribute Hayy, all creatures receive life from our Lord. But Allah Almighty has no need of what He created.

All wealth and property belong to Allah. According to the verse that says the inheritance of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah, people cannot take from the material world to the hereafter even a speck of the world; they cannot take it. What will he take? Do you know what He means by a speck of the world? This body of a person too. He cannot take that either. Even though it is his own. So what will he take? The driver of this body: life, spirit and nafs. These three are one. But this body is entrusted to them. It leaves here this body created from the soil, which He calls a speck, and returns to the presence of Allah Almighty in the form in which it was first created.

In a verse He says: We return you to your first form of creation. Here, in the outward sense, the first meaning is being turned weak. Weak as a child, being turned weak in old age. We turn you back to your first genetic state. In fact, a deep meaning: We sent you to the world for a test. You proved what kind of person you are. Then at the end of your life the command of the Truth came to pass. So you left behind this body too, which you outwardly saw as yourselves. (?) We made you return back again. We turned you back, He says. (?) We turn you back. The spirit with the nafs, life; the body is gone too.

Yes.

Wealth and property are given to people so that reward and sin may come forth. The giving of wealth and property. So if you give in charity in the way of Allah the wealth beyond your need, if you give Allah's wealth to Allah, Allah gives you His Paradise in return. In a verse He says: whoever buys Paradise with their lives and wealth. This verse. With their lives the martyrs, with their wealth those who give charity in the way of Allah, buy Paradise. In return for what do they buy the Paradise Allah promised? They give up the love of wealth that Allah created. If you can give Allah what is beyond your need and win this test, you will have bought Allah's created Paradise with Allah's created wealth.

And do not throw yourselves with your own hands into danger: if, with the wealth Allah Almighty has bestowed on people, you are stingy and cannot use it where it is needed, you will have thrown yourselves into danger. What is this danger? If, through the nafs and its whims, you love what your Lord created more than your Lord, and put the love of that wealth in your heart, you fall into shirk. These are hidden shirk. You cannot notice it.

A state, under which you are protected and live. You are protected by a state and live. When your state is attacked, for your state to protect you, it needs weapons, equipment and ammunition. Of course the state will obtain this money from its nation. In this situation, if out of stinginess you withhold your money and earned wealth from your state, you throw yourself into danger with your own hands. Because your state's defeat puts your wealth and your life in danger. So you wrong yourself both in this world and in the hereafter.

With the help people give their state in such situations, (?), orphans and the elderly in that state will make their living, and you will be the cause of their making their living. These are the rewards you receive in Allah's sight.

Yes.

Also, having schools, mosques and madrasas built, spending your wealth on them, with the contributions you make, through the scholars who will be raised there, to your state, your nation and your religion, if only you knew your reward in Allah's sight. In Allah's sight. Because Allah in His verse: İkra' bismi rabbikellezî halak. Read in the name of your Lord who created, He created; with this verse Allah Almighty, who gives value to reading, makes known that knowledge comes through reading. Therefore, does the Prophet (peace be upon him) freeing a prisoner of war who taught ten children to read and write not show us the value given to knowledge in Islam?

Yes, so, O people, if you too do good for Allah with the wealth Allah has bestowed on you, and, by these examples we have given, if only you knew your place in Allah's sight.

According to the verse that says: Do good, Allah loves the honest, it means people worshipping Allah Almighty as if they see Him.

In the unseen world, a world where Allah Almighty is not seen, our Lord sees us. Therefore we must be devoted to Allah from the heart and do our deeds fully for Allah. We must do good for Allah; only then are we honest, and Allah Almighty loves the honest. To be able to act for Allah we must reform our nafs. If we cannot reform our nafs, our nafs makes us turn forty somersaults on one foot; the world and Satan work together with the nafs; even though reason shows the right way, a person cannot enter the right path his reason shows when he is together with his nafs; that person has turned forty somersaults on one foot, so that in the middle of a straight road he is lost.

Here, being honest means being among the people of taqwa. Doing everything for Allah. Paying attention to halal and haram. Being devoted to Allah from the heart. Holding fast to the verses of Allah Almighty. These are the muhsin, the doers of good.

They are righteous servants. They are those who possess Allah's light. And those who possess this light are the honest. Allah loves such people.

So you cannot compare a Muslim with a non-Muslim. Impossible. You cannot find a single honest one among non-Muslims.

Don't go by what I say. Here is a verse for you.

They are lying disbelievers, it says. I used to think about this verse. I used to say: is there no one among them who tells the truth? Surely my Lord speaks the truth. But how are they lying disbelievers? Anyway, it is Elest: (?) by denying Allah they are lying disbelievers. All of them are liars at the root.

So a Muslim cannot be compared with this. Plus, their hearts are restless and scattered, it says. So you cannot find honesty in them. Their honesty is that, for their own interests, they appear to you as honest. Their appearing honest to you is hypocrisy itself.

Yes.

Isn't that so, Kenan Hodja? It is.