Al-Hajj 78: Genuinely strive for the cause of Allah. You excel among others (because of your strong faith in the Truth). Allah has not burdened you with hardship in religious matters. As in the religion of your father Abraham. Before this (earlier divine Books), and in this (the Qur’an), Allah has given to you the name ‘Muslims’. So that the Prophet will be a witness upon you, and you will be witnesses upon other people. So, establish the prayer (As-Salat), pay obligatory alms (Zakah), and hold on firmly to Allah. Allah is your Maula (Dear Lord). How beautiful a Maula (Dear Lord) and how beautiful a Helper (Allah) is!

Yes.

Of Surah Al-Hajj, verse 78 is a wrongly explained verse. Let us first read you the wrong one.

Where is the mistake? Let's see. Verse 78, where is its mistake?

Yes, (?), it says.

Strive in Allah's way as is due. Correct. When it says He chose you, there is a mistake here. Allah Almighty could not know His creatures; whoever was closer to Allah Almighty, He chose us. He chose us; and within Islam, among Muslims, those many whose nafs is the nafs al-ammara, who are sinners and will enter hell, did He choose them too? That is, they ascribe attributes to Allah Almighty. Whereas that part of the verse is like this.

Because of your believing; we open the meaning in parentheses. Because of your believing, over other people you are distinguished. Look. That is, the meaning of "He chose you" is exactly: you are distinguished. How are we distinguished? How are we superior? We explain this part based on your believing. What is it? Because of your believing, over other people, over other people, you are distinguished. Yes. In matters of religion Allah Almighty has placed no hardship on you. In matters of religion. It was so in the religion of your father Abraham too. So that the Prophet may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over people, both in the books that came before, that is, the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, and in this, that is, the Quran, He named you Muslims.

So in the Psalms, the Torah and the Gospel too, those who followed them are on the fitra of Islam. They too are on the fitra of Islam. Because Allah Almighty sent His verses in a way they would understand. Then, when over time the capacity of the mind expanded, when, in a state where no one is loaded with a burden they cannot bear, minds came into play, the same verses, in a developed form, His verses that will continue until the Day of Judgment, He gathered in the Holy Quran and sent to people. Yes. What are we saying now? So that he may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over people, both in the books that came before, and in this, the Quran, He named you Muslims.

So perform the prayer, give zakat and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protector. What an excellent Protector. What an excellent Helper.

What an excellent Protector, what an excellent support, what an excellent friend He is, it says. Striving in Allah's way as is due. If you are attacked and assaulted, do not shy away from striving, from (?). Strive with your wealth and property. Do not cast Allah's religion behind you. Or, to make the religion of Islam known to people, to explain truth against falsehood, do not hold back from striving. Yes. How beautiful. How beautifully Allah Almighty sends His verses to people.

Allah chose Islam as the religion for people. Whoever is bound by the religion of Islam has entered among Allah's distinguished servants. Distinguished servants. Yes. Not chosen. Distinguished servants. That is, among those people, a chosen, that is, elevated person. Yes.

So be honoured with the religion of Islam. If you have taken your place among the distinguished servants, knowing the value of where you are, give it its due. Behaving in a way that sets an example to people, speak the truth. Never resort to lies. Spread Allah's justice on earth and stand by the oppressed. Extend your helping hand to the orphan and the fatherless, to the stranded traveller. Explaining Allah's true religion to people, shed light on people's paths. Be in bowing and prostration. Pray, fast and give zakat so that you find the truth. So that you attain Allah's mercy. And so that you, in relation to non-Muslims, bear witness over them. How will you bear witness?

Allah Almighty (?). Look, these people: I gathered the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel in one book. I sent the Quran. These, to what came from Allah, the Quran, and to the last to come, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), they were obedient. They submitted to what I sent, they prayed, bowed and prostrated, gave zakat, fasted. In this case you, the Prophet, the Prophet sent as a mercy to the worlds, you turned your backs on him. You attributed family and children to the One Allah. In this case, do you see these servants of Mine bound by Islam, that is, who believed and became My Muslim servants? This is how we will bear witness over them.

By praying, fasting, giving zakat, doing good deeds, being bound by Allah's religious rulings, we, in relation to other people, to non-Muslims, by carrying out Allah's commands, will have borne witness over them. Our Lord will show us to them as an example. So if we dress in a way that outdoes the non-Muslim and envy them, if we are with them day and night, surely, in this mindset, in the end our departure as Muslims will be very telling. Yes. Therefore we say: so be honoured with the religion of Islam. If you have taken your place among the distinguished servants, that is, if you have become Muslim, knowing the value of where you are, give it its due.

That is, when you, your Lord, that there is no god but Allah, with the testimony of faith: eşhedü en la ilahe illallah, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and eşhedü enne Muhammeden abdühü ve Resulühü. Muhammad is His servant and Messenger: when you say this, if you fulfill its conditions, if you pray, if you fast, if you give your zakat, if you go on your hajj, what will happen?

And if you are bound by your Lord's religious rulings on a straight path, then Allah Almighty will show you, to those who turned their backs on this testimony of faith, as a witness. So know your place. Know the value in Allah's religion.

Behaving in a way that sets an example to people, speak the truth. Never resort to lies. Spread Allah's justice on earth and stand by the oppressed. Extend your helping hand to the orphan and the fatherless, to the stranded traveller. Explaining Allah's true religion to people, shed light on people's paths. Be in bowing and prostration. Pray. Fast and give zakat. Yes. How beautiful. The way of life of the religion of Islam. People who live this way live in peace. In matters of religion, Allah Almighty, on those honoured with Islam, has placed no hardship. Yes.

Did He place hardship on other communities? In this case, He did. Well, didn't Allah commit injustice? Look now. He did not. Why not? Now if a person behaves shamelessly, breaks the law, what do we do? We punish him, right? That is, so that he does not do it again. Allah Almighty too brought prohibitions to some people. With those prohibitions He tried to discipline them. He did not destroy them. He showed some hardships. For example, He made some of the animal's intestines, inner fat and so on unlawful for them. In this case He tried to reform them.

What are we saying? Allah Almighty, in matters of religion, on those honoured with Islam has placed no hardship. Before Islam, in the time of some prophets, as the peoples did not listen to Allah's commands, Allah placed certain prohibitions on them. With Jesus (peace be upon him) some prohibitions were lifted. With the Prophet (peace be upon him), lifting all prohibitions, He gathered all religions under the religion of Islam. When we say all prohibitions, that is, except the religious ruling. In the religious ruling, eating carrion, blood, pork and animals not slaughtered in Allah's name is forbidden.

Yes.

What are we saying? He gathered them under the religion of Islam. Allah has not placed hardships on people in religion. Well, in this case, isn't Allah Almighty, regarding our eating carrion, blood, pork and animals not slaughtered in Allah's name, making it hard for us?

He is putting a prohibition on us too. No. He is protecting us. He is protecting us. Hodja, what protection is there in a prohibition? All germs circulate in the blood in the body. In the blood there are red cells, and (?), and white cells. Now the red cells give the blood its colour. Red. The white cells are your soldiers; they destroy enemies that enter the body. That is, they destroy germs. Since blood carries germs, since you don't know whether it has germs or not, Allah makes that blood unlawful for you, for your safety. That's one. We come to carrion. Carrion is already rotten as it is. Infested with worms or become a breeding ground for germs.

He does this too to protect you. In pork there is trichina. Even though it is boiled at 300 degrees, this trichina does not die in that meat. Since it does not die, when it enters the human body it harms the person. Therefore He makes pork unlawful for you too. We come to sacrifices not slaughtered in Allah's name: even if it is sound, even if it is clean, what are you doing? For the sake of tawhid, because you are Muslim, because there is no god but Allah, because they take another god besides Allah in their own imaginary world and sacrifice to it, it is made unlawful for you. Because there is no second god.

According to the verse, He makes this unlawful too. In this case Allah Almighty protects both people's religion, their faith, by not letting them eat (?); and protects the other because it harms people's bodies. In this case, what a beautiful path Allah Almighty shows people. Yes.

Your father Abraham: when it says your father, it means Abraham. Because when asked whose nation, when we say we are of Abraham's nation, he comes to be our father. When asked whose ummah: of Muhammad (peace be upon him), we are of his ummah. Yes, when it says it was so in the religion of your father Abraham too, they are of the ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him). In Abraham's time too, Allah did not place prohibitions on people. Yes.

What are we saying? When it says it was so in the religion of our father, your father Abraham too, those who are Muslim are, as a nation, of Abraham's nation. As an ummah, of Muhammad (peace be upon him) they are of his ummah. In Abraham's community too Allah did not place prohibitions on people. So that the Prophet may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over people, both in the books that came before, and in this, that is, the Quran, He named you Muslims. So in the old books too, that is, as I said, in the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel too, those who believed in those prophets, in those books, are on the fitra of Islam.

There Allah Almighty, without going beyond each person's mental capacity, without placing hardship on them, sends His verses to them in limited form. When minds came into play, together with the verses in their clear form, in the Holy Quran, gathering the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, the Holy Quran as a mercy to the worlds He sends. That is why, so that the Prophet may be a witness over you, and you may be witnesses over people, both in the books that came before, and in this, that is, the Quran, He named you Muslims. Those who followed the prophets of that time, who were bound by the books Allah sent at that time, are also on the fitra of Islam.

Yes, they are Muslims too. The Prophet (peace be upon him) will bear witness for his ummah and for all the prophets. Because Allah created the Prophet (peace be upon him) first. And from his spirit He created the spirits of the prophets. In this case Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the greatest of all prophets and people. Moreover, Allah has made the Prophet (peace be upon him) alive. Therefore Allah... the Prophet (peace be upon him) will be a witness both over his ummah and over all the prophets. Yes.

Allah Almighty, with the books He sent before the Holy Quran, and the peoples who followed these books, the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel, since they are on the fitra of Islam, He gave them the name Muslims too. These communities too, since in their time they followed their books and did not go outside Allah's command, took the name Muslims.

Therefore, since the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel are verses from the Quran, since all together they make up the Quran, these communities, in their time, by following the books in their hands, being just as if they had followed the Quran, took the name Islam. So perform the prayer, give zakat and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protector. What an excellent Protector. What an excellent Helper. Allah Almighty has gathered all the books in the Quran. He has sent the Holy Quran as a mercy to the worlds. Those who turn their backs on the Quran, those who deny Allah's book as a book, the nations that do not enter the religion of Islam: Muslims are in the position of witnesses over such people.

Perform the prayer, give zakat, and hold fast to Allah too. Because, so that you can bear witness tomorrow at the Great Court, you must not envy the darkness of the disbelievers' kufr, and Allah's commands you must carry out. Therefore Allah shows the truth to all people. And those who say "I am Muslim", He personally awakens with His verses and reminds them of their duties. How beautifully He reminds. O Muslim! Yâ eyyühellezîne âmenû. O you who believe! Since you are Muslims, if as Muslims you will also bear witness over the other communities, Allah Almighty will say to those people about us: look, these are My servants too, and you are My servants too.

Neither to you nor to them did I use any will of Mine and say: you be Muslim, you be unbelievers. To all of you I said: I am your Lord. What did you do? You showed division. You believed in the existence of other gods. You denied that I created you. In this case, this community believed that there is no god but Me, believed in all the prophets, carried out the commands I sent. Now, with these obeying My command and you, on your part, turning your back on Me, today, when everyone's earnings, as the return of their own two hands, at the Great Court, when you are called to account, when you are called to account here in His presence, did you think you would both enter the same (?) and be treated equally? He says.

Everyone will see the return of what they earned, He says. Today, because of your rebellion, your place is hell. It is a place of torment, He says. What an evil destination it is. What an evil bed it is, says Allah Almighty. Yes.

So, by reminding Muslims too of the verses so beautifully, He awakens people. While people live in the material world, the Protector of people is Allah.

The Protector, Creator and Lord of all worlds is Allah. Because there is no other god besides Him. What an excellent Protector Allah is. Because Allah does not intend injustice to people. He forgives their mistakes with one repentance. Allah is just. He gives everyone the full return of what they earned. Allah is gracious. He is the Beneficent. He is rich and generous. He gives everyone who asks their request in the direction of good. He does not force people into difficulty, nor does He burden them with hardship. What an excellent Helper Allah is. No created being can help as Allah helps people.

Allah will help people both in this world and in the hereafter. To those who do good, as the return of what they did, He will multiply their rewards and settle their accounts quickly and place them in the best places. So, O man, no one is closer to you than Allah. And as for salvation, you have no remedy of salvation other than Allah. Do not stubbornly and knowingly deny Allah. Do not wrong your nafs. Man has no helper and no intercessor other than Allah. Man has no other support to hold on to besides Allah. Yes.

In this case