Al-Baqarah 245: Is there someone who wants to give Allah a good (interest free) loan so that he will be paid back many times of what he has lent? It is Allah who gives shortness and abundance and to Allah you will be returned.

In Surah Al-Baqarah, when we come to verse 245,

so that He repays him many times over what he gave, to the one who asks for a goodly loan to Allah, is there no one who will lend free of interest? Allah Allah. How beautiful. Look at the verse. Yes.

We're coming to it. So that He repays him many times over what he gave. For example, if I gave 50 lira, and many times more than 50 lira will come back to me, is there no one who will lend free of interest to the one who asks for a goodly loan to Allah? Allah Allah. It is Allah who gives scarcity and Allah who gives abundance, and to Him alone you will be returned. The Giver is Allah too, and you will lend to Allah. What He gives, what our Lord has given, you will lend to Him. And by His attribute of ownership, He will give you many times more of it. Is there no one for such a deal, says Allah Almighty; you will be given many times more, He says.

Look at our Lord's generosity. How much He loves people. To invite them to salvation, to invite them to the Truth. How beautifully He guides us with His verses. Allah Almighty shows people the ways to the doors of guidance and mercy. With this verse. He invites you to the Truth, to goodness, I mean, to mercy. And when you show mercy to people, to His creatures, when you make a Muslim brother happy, there, you have lent to Allah. Our Lord will repay you many times more than that.

The doors of guidance and mercy are helping people, being at their side in their hard times, lending them money without interest and relieving their troubles. Whoever does these has lent to Allah, so that Allah gives their rewards multiplied many times over; the return for what they gave, in Allah's presence they will find in abundance. Yes.

Allah Almighty does not say: work and give to Me, and I'll give you money from interest.

To My creatures — Allah Almighty says this: To My creatures I am not (?) in giving, He says.

Whomever He wills, He (?) with treasures, whenever He wills. But since in this worldly realm we will always be tested with one another, you, for My sake and with the aim of gaining your Lord's good pleasure, to a servant your Lord created, in return for your giving charity for Allah's sake, We too will bring many times more before you in the hereafter realm. In the worldly realm We will save you from many troubles. Yes. And from many troubles.

They will find it in abundance in Allah's presence. There, Allah Almighty says: so that it is repaid to him many times over, who will lend to Allah?

Many times over. What does it say? In return for the (?) made in the verse, it goes 1 to 3, 1 to 5, 1 to 7, 10, 70, 100, it goes toward 1 to (?). Our Lord has tied deeds to intention. That is the many times over.

He declares that He will grant His mercy to people in this state too. If He gives many times over, they will attain His mercy. Yes. There is good news in the verse. Good news.

With this verse Allah Almighty invites people to help one another, to social solidarity. How beautiful. People, believers are brothers. If there is a believer at one end of the world and a believer at the other, the two are brothers. It is not (?). I mean, these, in Allah's presence, (?) bound by Allah's commands, people who put their foreheads in the same prostration before the Most Merciful. These are brothers.

So, for these brothers, through social solidarity, through helping one another, to find peace with the blessings of the world and to spend their worldly life in peace, it is a light our Lord has held out before us. With His verses. At the same time, through people helping one another, it strengthens the bonds of love among people. So Islam is a family. Islam is brotherhood. The life, property and honour of a brother are haram to his brother.

In the religion of Islam, when a person lends money to someone, the one who lends, however much he is lending to the one in need, the one who lends actually knows that he is lending to Allah. And when the one in need takes this money, however much he takes it from the one he owes, and though he will pay his debt back to the person he took it from, he knows that he received it from Allah. Why? If that person did not love Allah, he would not help him. Here the lender does not, because he lent, act superior toward the other. And the debtor does not bow his head before his creditor. This is a grace and favour of Allah to people.

It is the beauty of the religion of Islam. That there is no discrimination among people.

Whatever you are, whatever rank you hold, as long as you are bound by Allah's command, people's superiority is in Allah's presence. Their degrees. Not by your rank on earth.

That is why, as long as people stray from Allah's commands, they fall into the net of the nafs and Satan. The world looks attractive to them, and these people drift away from Allah. First they start boasting of worldly goods. Then, worst of all, they grow proud toward one another with these goods and start to act superior.

Then class differences arise among people.

Just as the Jews founded the Masonic organisation, whereas Allah Almighty created all people equal. People have been left free, by their own will, to know Allah or not. So people's superiority over one another is shown by their obedience to Allah Almighty. And that is in Allah's presence. That is why, if I say: I have wealth on earth, I am very rich, and then look down on that poor person, God forbid, Allah (?) us too to destruction. He surrounds people from unknown directions and squeezes them more and more, takes out of their hearts the peace, and in its place come stress and depression. Then, to escape that stress and depression, the person starts giving up his wealth.

Like what? He starts turning to drink, gambling, things like adultery. That is how they become surrounded from unknown directions. And one day you look and their wealth has turned to nothing, and humiliation has seized them by the collar. May Allah protect us. So then, from the poorest to the richest, what is on all of them and what they eat and wear is our Lord's favour to people. If a person knows it this way, there is no superiority among people.

Nor any class difference. Superiority among people is only made known by the obedience they show to their Lord. By their obedience.

Now a question like this may come to your mind.

You might say: But Hodja, if in a verse Allah Almighty says they are like four-legged beasts roaming the earth, and if I have attained the quality of a human, and they are outside the religion of Islam, am I, are they now equal — when one says that, it does not fall within what was said. Why not? As long as he remains in that state, it is clear. As long as he remains in that state, it is clear. When I say there is no difference among people, between the creation of the Muslims, the Muslims, or of other people there is no difference at all. All were created upon the fitra of Islam. Their distinction: with their own beliefs, with the actual deeds they did by their beliefs, they dragged themselves to destruction.

They turned their backs on Allah. Of course, if you take your place beside one who turns his back on Allah, you too become like them. What does it say? Whoever follows them is like them. Then what does He say in a verse? Do not mock any people. That is, do not ridicule them either. Even if he is an unbeliever. It may be, He says, that he repents and becomes Muslim. It may be, He says, that they are a better people than you, He says. Yes. Doesn't it happen? How many non-Muslims have become Muslim. And how many say I am a Muslim, yet of what those who became Muslim from non-Muslims do in the religion do not do (?).

That is why, to what I say, (?), do not judge the verses from a single angle. In the exalted verses they all support one another. They support one another. And if a judgment is made by a single verse, a person runs into dead ends. So there is no class distinction among people. But, as I said a moment ago, superiority among people is in Allah's presence. Why is it in Allah's presence? Because Allah Almighty knows which of them is closer to Him. We cannot know. Yes.

It is Allah who gives scarcity. It is Allah who gives abundance. Whomever He wills He drowns in wealth, whenever He wills. And from whomever He wills He takes what He wills in an instant. He condemns him to want. Allah, who is capable of everything, Allah, who is capable of everything, tests us with one another. Now you might ask me a question here. Hodja, you always say:

People see their own inner content in those across from them. But what are you saying here? Whomever He wills He drowns in wealth, whenever He wills. And from whomever He wills He takes what He wills in an instant. He condemns him to want. we say. Allah Almighty treats no one like this, everyone was within his own wish — you might ask the question here like that. Now, just as Allah Almighty says some words in a figurative sense, in a figurative sense. For example: they will be gathered blind. That is, even there, though they see Allah, they will not believe. That is blindness. Yes. Figurative meanings. We too, for Allah Almighty's freedom, that He does whatever He wills, whatever He wills.

Does He? He does. Within people's destinies too, we cannot know. You see one in want, and He gives him wealth. If it is within his destiny, from that wealth too, within his destiny, through a cause He brings him down to want. This is our Lord, over those people, that is over their destiny, helping their scenario to play out. That is, Allah Almighty will create the causes, and the person will prove what kind of person he is. Yes, in the meanings here, together with the figurative sense, within Allah Almighty's (?), people's — our people's traits as lived within their destinies — to express them: those are the words we have spoken.

Allah, who is capable of everything, tests us here with one another. Yes.