Al-Baqarah 238: In your prayers; beware of the medium of the salah. Pray to Allah in a state of respect and obedience.

238. Verse: Guard the prayers and the middle prayer. Pray in reverence and devotion to Allah. So we have come to a very important point. A very important point. All the verses are important. Each is a life. But here, here we have come to a point full of superstition. We have come to a point that people know through superstition. That is why I said important. It is very long. A page and a half. Why is it so long? Because, as I just said, there are superstitions here. In this verse there are people's superstitions. What does it say? Guard the prayers and the middle prayer. Pray in reverence and devotion to Allah.

Look, the name says it already. When it says middle prayer, that is exactly where the superstition begins. They say the afternoon prayer is the middle prayer. And as we always say, we say: neither the afternoon prayer, nor the noon prayer, nor the evening prayer, nor the isha prayer, nor the morning prayer. None of the five daily prayers is the middle prayer.

Then, Hodja, is the middle prayer a separate prayer? No. The middle prayer is the prayer performed with the very manifestations of Allah Almighty, before Him. So when He says guard the middle prayer, perform your prayers in this way. At the end of His verse Allah Almighty says: pray in reverence and devotion to Allah. In this, at the end of this verse, pray in reverence and devotion to Allah, in that verse: not while shopping in the world, not saying how can I swindle someone else's right and due, but in your Lord's presence, both reciting the verse and saying: my Lord, I am content with what comes from You.

I only want to see Your beauty. I long for nothing other than that. If you can pray with a mutual conversation, the middle prayer (?).

Well, the Prophet, in a hadith too, when (?) us from the middle prayer at the Battle of the Trench, it was supposedly the afternoon prayer. So the afternoon prayer was supposedly the middle prayer. This supposedly needed special attention. Whereas, of the prayers with which one stands in Allah Almighty's presence, none, none is of less worth than another. All are prayers with which one stands in Allah Almighty's presence; if one of these prayers were more valuable, people would watch for the time of standing in Allah Almighty's presence, pray one time, and be done. And be done.

That is why now, with the things we explain this way, some say, I have performed my prayer. That does not work either. With what? I prayed in my heart, he says. That does not work either. They are a separate group too. Well, how many times will you pray? Before the Divine Presence. Yes, that is the middle prayer. Look, when I say Allahu Akbar, my Lord is before me. But do you see, in the heart?

An image, (?) the form of being, our Lord before you, when you say Allahu Akbar, suspended, and I recite the Fatiha, I recite the additional surah. I recite, but (?). My Lord, do not separate me from Your essence.

In this world I want to see nothing other than Your essence. I want no possessions. Do not deprive me of the manifestations of Your essence, in this world or in the hereafter. But our Lord also speaks. He speaks. What do you want? All I want is to see Your essence. Not to be separated from Your essence. Whatever you ask, then give it, give it. Say it. What should I ask of the world? The world will go anyway. Whatever your provision is, He will give it anyway. Well, does asking the owner of property for property not bring shame on a person? For the world, give me this, give me that. This hurts me.

Does Allah Almighty not know what I am in need of? My Lord, who knows me better than I do, my Lord who knows the secrets hidden in our hearts that we cannot know, does He not know me? He knows. That is the middle prayer. Perform such a prayer. What does it say? Pray in reverence and devotion to Allah, it says. Otherwise you cannot point to any of the prayers, that is, to one of them, as the middle prayer. People talk though they do not know. They talk. Now we are explaining it here. When the Prophet ascended in the Mi'raj, he brought prayer to people as a gift. Prayer is a form of worship performed five times a day, at set times.

In Allah Almighty's presence no prayer time is more precious than any other. Of course. You are in our Lord's presence. Every time is precious. Every time. Then all these are words that follow, confirm one another: they ask you about the spirits. Say: it is a command of your Lord.

So if from His own spirit He created the spirit of the Prophet (peace be upon him), if from his spirit He created the spirits of the prophets, if our Lord did this from His own part, can He not send His own being, His command, wherever He wishes, in whatever way He wishes? As He sent it to Mary. (?), he says. Oh it was Gabriel, oh it was whatever. Well, to what Allah created, for Allah Almighty to make her pregnant with Jesus, will He send Gabriel? God forbid, Allah protect us. So let us not stir up these places now, let us not go deep. These confuse the human mind. Let us explain it on the surface, as the public understands it.

Yes.

All prayers performed are equal in Allah's sight. That is, when I say all prayers performed are equal in Allah's sight, one time (?) another. But their degrees, with your nearness to and distance from your Lord, praying as one praying in his Lord's presence, rise with your deeds' degree of obedience. Rewards are given like this: 1 to 3, 5, 7, 10, 70, 100. Well. We do not mean that one time is superior to another.

Its value and degrees of reward are the prayers people perform with sincerity in Allah Almighty's presence, contemplating our Lord. We are trying to open up here what we said a moment ago. So that they do not hold a wrong idea. What are we saying?

All prayers performed are equal in Allah's sight. That is, all times, no time being superior to any other, all times are equal. Its value and degrees of reward are the prayers a person performs with sincerity in Allah Almighty's presence, contemplating our Lord. Prayer, as we all know, is a person's mi'raj. And the Mi'raj is the Prophet (peace be upon him) arriving in Allah Almighty's divine presence.

So prayer, which came as a gift, is people's spiritual ascent to Allah Almighty's presence. That is how beautifully we explain it. If you saw Allah Almighty in the Mi'raj, in my mi'raj, the prayer, in that prayer, if I the middle prayer, that is, in the heart with the clarity of spiritual unveiling, in our Lord's presence, perform the prayer, it is the middle prayer. If one prayer time were more precious than the others, then when one stands in Allah Almighty's presence with prayer, the prayers would have, in Allah's sight, at different times, different values and rewards.

How beautifully we explain it. What does the verse say? Pray in reverence and devotion to Allah, it says. It does not say: this prayer is more valuable than that one, if you pray at this time it is better, it does not. God forbid, Allah protect us.

Some exegetes say the middle prayer is the afternoon prayer. Some exegetes point to different times as the middle prayer. They say, for example: evening and isha are night, noon and afternoon are day, the middle prayer is the morning one, they say. Others say: morning and evening, well, at twilight, noon and afternoon in the day, the isha prayer is the middle prayer. They make it up, that is, they speak as they please. As they please.

And here we refute them with verses. With verses. Some exegetes point to different times as the middle prayer. No time of the five daily prayers can be pointed to as the middle prayer. That is, neither the morning prayer, nor the noon prayer, nor the afternoon, nor the evening, nor the isha can be pointed to. If you are in your Lord's presence at every time, every time is the middle prayer. No time of the five daily prayers can be pointed to as the middle prayer. If any one of the prayer times had been pointed to as the middle prayer, Allah Almighty would have been ascribed attributes. Yes. And Allah Almighty would have been ascribed attributes in such a fine way.

How so? The Prophet (peace be upon him) says: if the acts of worship you perform do not keep you from evil, those acts of worship are a burden to you. Prayer, as we all know, is the pillar of religion. It cleanses people spiritually; through the prayers performed between the times, the small sins committed between these times receive from Allah Almighty (?) forgiveness. Accordingly, through his worship, through the prayer he performs, a person breaks the bad traits in his own nafs and cleanses his heart of sins, and lets Allah's light circulate in his heart. Yes. So if people had called one of these times the middle prayer, they would have ascribed attributes to Allah. How would they have ascribed them?

Allah Almighty, of the prayers, although all of them are worship of His essence, one He would have made valuable. Valuable. And that man says, that time is valuable, this is what I believe. He prays at that time, and the prayer which is our Lord's (?) command upon us he abandons. Are there not such people? There are. I have performed my prayer. I have performed the middle prayer, he says. Allah grant him safety. He never prays again. That is, there are those deceived within various ideologies. But, satanic, but within ideologies, there are those who deceive, they exist. That is why the middle prayer is within the five daily prayers.

Perform these five daily prayers, perform them with sincerity and perform them in your Lord's presence, so that you have performed the middle prayer and rise in your Lord's sight.

Let us open this up a bit more, so that, although the meaning is general, the subject is understood better, we said. A person struggles with his own nafs. He breaks the evils in his nafs. He cleanses his nafs. If he rises to the nafs al-mutma'inna, he becomes aware of the manifestations. Now here we have slowly tried to open up to people what we explained above. These persons are mu'mins. If you pay attention, Allah Almighty in some verses says O nas, that is, O people, in some verses O mu'mins, and in some verses O you who believe; this is how He addresses. Among those who believe there are mu'mins.

But not everyone who believes is a mu'min. Mu'mins are friends of Allah. They are also called wali. When they stand in prayer, their heart being graced with the manifestations, the prayer they perform in the very presence of Allah Almighty is the middle prayer. Otherwise, if one of the times were precious and the middle prayer were one of the times, Allah would be ascribed attributes, and the servant would call one of those times the middle prayer, perform it, and his other prayer times he would not perform. Yes, then Allah Almighty's word, I have sent clear verses upon people, would be overshadowed; He would have used ambiguous words.

The meaning in saying guard the middle prayer is: O people, (?) Allah's presence. Destroy the evils in your heart by performing prayer. Do not forget that with the prayer you perform you are in Allah's presence. Contemplate Him, reform your nafs. Be a servant as Allah wishes, so that you perform such a prayer. Many people, while praying, wander around the market and bazaar, think of this and that, perform their prayer quickly by Satan's temptation, and get rid of a burden on them. This too counts as having prayed. And its reward is accordingly.

By report they say, by report, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said this at the Battle of the Trench: They kept us from the middle prayer. May Allah fill their houses with fire, he says. That this is a hadith there is no reason to believe, none. Why? As a hadith there is no reason to believe it, they say. The Prophet: Ve mâ erselnâke illâ rahmeten li'l-âlemîn. He came as a mercy to the worlds. He is a prophet who cursed no one. We said, he is a prophet who cursed no one. Let me say it once more so that it sticks in your ears. He is a prophet who cursed no one. Because he came as a mercy to the worlds.

If he came as a mercy to the worlds, cursing does not befit him.

And since he does not speak in vain, had he said may fire fall on their houses, they would all have perished. So it is not a hadith. Look how beautiful. Proven, that is. There must be knowledge; you will sift the hadiths. Ha, this man denies hadiths too. Blessed one, I do not deny hadith. I deny what is not hadith; I prove it against the verses. Yes. So when it is said this man denies hadith, you expose your own weakness. You reveal your ignorance. As Musa also said: Hodja, everyone says, with verses in the Quran, that there is a sirat. You say there is none. Can those who say so show a single verse?

But I show many verses. Not one, not three, not five, not ten, not twenty, I show verses. Let him show one. If I show twenty, thirty verses that there is no sirat, and Allah's word does not contradict itself, and Hodja, whom shall we believe, he says, then decide yourself whom to believe. Yes.

There is no reason to believe this is a hadith. Just as if even a single dot in a verse changes, the meaning changes. If with this change of meaning it ceases to be a verse, the hadith is like this too, we said. If in words or letters a misspeaking occurs, Elhamdülillah Elhamdülillah yettine ve yettikümullah it ceases to be a hadith. So we said there is no reason to believe this is a hadith. The reason, first point: the Prophet (peace be upon him) is ve mâ erselnâke illâ rahmeten li'l-âlemîn. He came as a mercy to the worlds. He curses no one. He is a prophet who does not curse people. As I said a moment ago. Second point: even if he said, in the middle prayer they (?) us, even if he said it, because the enemy ranks were very close in front of him, the Battle of the Trench, with (?) and a trench lying in between, and the weight of commanding the people there being on his shoulders, he could not perform a prayer with contemplation.

He said it meaning this. Otherwise, if the Prophet (peace be upon him) had abandoned the prayer of its time, people would accept this as sunnah and do away with the seriousness of their prayers. Pray in reverence and devotion to Allah. So, as evidence for what I have explained in this verse, as proof for people of how to pray and what kind of prayer the middle prayer is and how to perform it, this verse is sufficient. Just as a person, as is due, does not fail in respect for his mother and father, before Allah, who created the whole universe before him, of course in respect and devotion one will turn to His presence without failing.

Yes. We continue with the noble verse.

We continue with the verse.

To secure that respect and devotion, such a reform of the nafs and a beautiful cleanness of heart is needed that, as in Surah An-Nur, verse 35, Allah Almighty says: since Allah too loves those who love Allah, We place Our light in their hearts, He says. We place Our light in their hearts. We do not open this up here. We move on. Those who are there, in such a spiritual (?), from the secret of the light Allah has given, with the inspiration coming to the person, the prayers performed in their Lord's presence are themselves the middle prayer.

God willing, in future, with the verses we gave as examples, on the topics of prayer or with other verses, we will continue to tell you the truth, we said. And there are tafsirs written as, let us say it like this, 11 of them. Please look at them. All of them, by the reckoning of minds, written with writings copied from one another: tafsirs. Is yours the right one, Hodja? Are you the only clever one? The decision on this again depends on your minds, in the light of the verses I explained, on the decision you will make. Yes, do not forget this.

The imam of the time, the task of the time, and in order to sift falsehoods out of religion, in the light of the Quran's verses, to tell the truth, to tell, of telling, within this duty, what I tell you are words. That is, by our Lord Himself dictated, and as one on duty words I tell. If what I say were not truly in keeping with the inspiration our Lord gives us and that wisdom, up to now, in many verses I explained I would have said such words contradicting each other that you would be astonished. Just like the other hodjas.

Yes.

You would just have listened offhandedly.

If I had told superstitions, my site, even, would be beyond count, people would fill it. But sifting out superstitions, the falsehoods in religion; if, judging by falsehoods, well, about this sirat bridge, like Allah sends whom He wills to paradise and whom He wills to hell, like (?) Allah does this this way, I had spoken with such words, (?) would overflow. But because people are used to these comforts, (?) comes to them and they run away. And my Lord sends here only those close to His essence and whom He loves. They are the elite. Those elite act using their reason. I am not telling you to (?) me.

One of them says this. Hodja, you are satanic. He says. Well, if I am satanic, prove it to me from a verse. No, there is no verse. A word. That is, he says superstition. He says this is, I don't know, (?). That is, he puts me outside the religion. Say it from a single verse. No, he cannot. Then the word means nothing. But I always speak from the verses. In that case your stance against me strikes the armour of the verses in me and goes back. Just as they said of the Prophet (peace be upon him) too, he is majdhub, he is majnun, as they said. If the religion had been Islam, they would have called him a kafir too.

In any case, since the kafirs were kafirs, they did not know kafirness. They would have said it to the Prophet too. Then where? This is a sorcerer, they said. This is a great sorcerer, they said. This is majdhub, that is, mad, they said. So they said. But with the Messenger too, against the verses, all of it melted away. Let them say whatever they say to us; against my Lord's verses their words, we say. They cannot bring a single verse for the words they say. But I answer you with verses. Then use your reason, I say. Again one of them says: those like you, he says, always at the head of communities, that is, at the head of religion, exploit people's consciences, he says.

They always see their own words as superior, he says. Yes. I never see my own words as superior. I see the verses as superior and I speak the verses. If you tell me you see your own words as superior, against Allah's verses you have taken a stand. Taken a stand. I always love the verses. And I exploit no one's conscience. If I did, are there not people wanting to help? I say no. Why? I say no. This hodja, sir, is himself doing exploitation, they would say. What is he doing here, they would say. Look. We do not accept these. That is to cut off these suspicions. Whereas if help were accepted, would it be lacking? No.

It would pour in. What if we set up a television? Anyway, to you: Hodja, on which television do you broadcast? If I set up a television today, if we showed a documentary, a wildlife documentary, for an hour, an hour and a half, I gave a lesson for half an hour, an hour, then again an hour and a half, two hours of documentary we showed, again after that half an hour, an hour, an hour and a half of lesson we gave, again showed a documentary, always documentaries though, wildlife documentaries, well, and documentaries from which people would take lessons. And if meanwhile our television were open to questions, and people, all of this Turkey or the world, listened again from there, wouldn't that be nice?

It would. Oh, I don't have the means to do it. But I want this. I don't have the means. So what will happen? If it is to be, if people who love the religion of Islam and know that I speak the truth said, Hodja, come, we dedicate this television of ours to you alone, it would work. The television will be dedicated to us alone. Why? Because on that television we never want immoral images. We never want false news. Well, since we are responsible to people for those documentaries and for explaining the religion, that documentary, that television must be under our oversight. Accordingly, you need to own a television of your own.

Yes. Many people here have no internet. Many people have no computer. Many people don't know how to use the internet. Many people don't know how to use a computer. In this case we can only reach some people. Some people.

That is why we say our Lord opens unknown doors for us. Allah Almighty, who from quite unknown quarters, to guide people all the way here, creates the means, knows, concerning those people, what is best, and accordingly, God willing, He will light our way too. If in the future we can own a television, on that television we will try to teach people as is needed at certain hours of the day. Yes.