Al-Baqarah 254: Oh you who believe! Before the Day comes on which there is no trade, no friendship and no intercession, spend in the path of Allah from the provisions that were given to you. And the infidels, they are the oppressors.

Let us try to open up verse 254 of Surah Al-Baqarah for you.

O you who believe!

Before a day comes in which there is no trade, no friendship and no intercession, spend from the sustenance given to you in the way of Allah. The disbelievers, they are the wrongdoers. Yes. They are wrongdoers. How beautifully it says it. Here. Look. In the verse you mentioned it continues. The disbelievers, they are the wrongdoers. They are oppressors toward their own nafs. There are many words to be said. Both according to (?) and according to this verse. But our lesson is not politics.

O you who believe! A time will come when, that is, people will die in the material world. The Last Day will come. People will be resurrected again (?), and that day of being called to account will come. It is such a time that on that day of reckoning there will be no trade, no friend and no intercessor. Before that day comes, while living in this world, spend in the way of Allah. Before going to the hereafter, send the provisions for the hereafter ahead of you. Yes. Nowhere do we bring up the subject of giving help.

Actually it is a very important subject. Well, Hodja, if it's so important, why don't you bring it up?

Let me tell you the reason.

You know there are those who walk in the guise of a hodja and rob people, who say 'I am a hodja' and swindle the orphan of his right before his first whiskers grow, you know; those who, in foreign lands, abroad, far from their homeland, from their spouses, friends, mothers and fathers, relatives, deceive people and swindle them, who exploit their consciences, you know; so that those (?) by them don't say: look, this hodja too is a collector again. May Allah protect us. That is why I am very afraid to say that word. But because it is a verse of Allah Almighty, I say it: wake up. This is Allah's verse.

Never, until now, have I told you about any giving of help. And I am not saying give help either, God forbid. I am not saying give help either. Don't misunderstand. But our Lord commands so. What does He say? O you who believe! A time will come when, that is, people will die out of the material world. The Last Day will come. People will be resurrected again (?), and that day of being called to account will come. It is such a time that on that day of reckoning there will be no trade, no friend and no intercessor. Before that day comes, while living in this world, spend in the way of Allah. Before going to the hereafter, let us send our provisions ahead of us to the hereafter.

Gentlemen, ladies, my children who listen to me, I say: when you give help, without entrusting your right eye to your left eye, consciously, give help in the right place. But do give help. Imam al-Ghazali says this: Give, even if little; do not accustom your hand to stinginess, he says. Give, even if little. A little charity also wards off many calamities. But Hodja, if it is written in destiny, how can it do that? Giving charity is already in his destiny, and that will be (?) for it, will ward it off. So since you don't know what your destiny is, give your charity. Perhaps even if no calamity was going to come to you, Allah writes a reward for you.

How beautiful. If you meet the need of the one in need, if you make him smile, Allah makes you smile too. These are provisions, capital, for the hereafter.

The disbelievers, they are the wrongdoers.

If Allah calls the disbelievers wrongdoers, all disbelievers without exception are wrongdoers. Here you may ask a question like this. So among these disbelievers is there none who is not a wrongdoer? Except the disbelievers who come to believe, all disbelievers without exception are wrongdoers; it is not only a person's oppressing another person or falling into disbelief that makes him a wrongdoer. Disbelievers too are sinners while living in this world, but if they die in that state they are wrongdoers. Because they became disbelievers by denying Allah and His Messenger, by not accepting the religion of Islam, the last and true religion, out of their spite.

So if they go to the hereafter in this state, these people will have eternally left their own nafs to the fire and to torment in this fire. In view of this, who could be more of a wrongdoer toward his own nafs than such people? For this reason, since Allah knows them very well, He declares: the disbelievers, they are the wrongdoers. What will the disbeliever do? He will do wrong so that he (?) his disbelief. What will the disbeliever do? He will turn his back on Allah's verse. He will go outside the limits of whatever He said, so that he will be an oppressor toward his nafs and will have declared his wrongdoing.

Yes.