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.

...guard themselves. That is the meaning of the verse. Yes.

On page 28 a rather long verse has been interpreted wrongly. Let's read this one too. First, where is the mistake? We'll see the mistake. If we can find the mistakes of the verses — God forbid — of the translations, the mistakes of the translations interpreting the verse, if we can find them, then one grasps Allah Almighty better. One grasps better that Allah is free of deficient attributes. The fear of Allah in our hearts grows. The love of Allah in our hearts grows. Because Allah Almighty says: those who know Me fear Me the most. Those who know Me love Me the most, He says. In this case, if we know that our Lord is free of deficient attributes, and if we know according to which verse this verse has been interpreted wrongly, we will know our religion better.

Now here: on the night of the fast, approaching your wives has been made lawful for you. Correct. They are a garment for you. Correct. Now, garment — if we explain some words — that is, correct. What is a garment? It is what covers a person's private parts. It is what shelters people from sins. And women, to the man — woman, man — since the woman defines the man, the woman too is the man's garment. That is, what keeps him from sins. Yes. And you too are a garment for them. We too are a garment for them. Because they too follow the same nafs. Since Allah knew you would wrong your own selves — look how nicely it says it — that you would wrong, He accepted your repentance and forgave you.

On the nights of Ramadan, approach your wives. Seek what Allah has ordained for you. Eat and drink until the white thread of the morning becomes distinct from the black thread. Look how nicely it says it. That is, Allah Almighty doesn't say "with imsak". The white thread and the black thread of the morning. Until they become distinct. Now, one of the Companions, to the Prophet (peace be upon him), coming, says: I put a black thread under my pillow, he says. Until it separates, until it becomes visible, he says. I'll leave it under my pillow, he says. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) says to him: how big your pillow must be!

How big it must be. That is, the blackness and whiteness He means: 45 minutes or 43 minutes before sunrise, when you look toward the sunrise, as if with a sword it had been cut, one side is light and the other pitch black. That's what this blackness and whiteness is like, says Allah Almighty. How nicely it's put. Eat and drink. Then complete it from dawn until evening, it says. Here that is called dawn (fajr). And there is also a false dawn. Imsak — about half an hour, 45 minutes before, again some light appears. That is the false dawn. Well, why did we accept imsak here? When dawn will break in the morning, when the day will end — not everyone has a calendar in hand.

So people, for the sake of uniformity, for the sake of unity and togetherness, accepted imsak. Let's begin our fast with imsak, they said. And since the morning prayer begins with imsak, they made that the cut-off point. But the moment imsak begins, if there are still 45, 43 minutes until sunrise, right away, it says, hurry, eat your meal quickly. That is, one may eat within this time too.

And it says: on the nights of Ramadan, approach your wives. Seek what Allah has ordained for you. The white thread of the morning. Look, it does say "of the morning". Imsak begins, after all — the morning time begins anyway. How nice. Until the white thread of the morning, from the black thread, becomes distinct from the black thread, eat and drink. Then complete the fast from dawn until evening. Do not lie with women while you are in retreat (i'tikaf) in the mosques. For instance, they go into i'tikaf in the last ten days. The Prophet (peace be upon him), in the last ten days of Ramadan, would go into i'tikaf. The one who conquered it and the saviour of a document.

These are the limits set by Allah; do not approach these limits. Thus Allah makes His verses clear to people, perhaps they will be protected. Again it says here: perhaps they will be protected — they always used the word "perhaps". here too, surely, the word la'alla occurs. Let's see where it occurs.

Same here. They always rendered the word la'alla wrongly. Always interpreted it wrongly. Now, since this is right up to the end, because they made a mistake in the word la'alla because of the "perhaps", we counted it as wrong. Because the form of the verse changes. Well, when the verse comes to ascribe something to Allah Almighty — when its interpretation comes to ascribe something to Allah Almighty, what do we do? We say: this is wrong. Even though all of it is correct, when a single word changes the verse's meaning, when it ascribes something to Allah, we say it's wrong. And here we have said: so that they, those believers, guard themselves.

Yes.