At-Tawbah 108: Don’t pray in it. On that day, it is certainly more appropriate to pray in the masjid (Masjid of Quba), which was established upon piety. There are men in it who like to purify. And Allah likes those who purify themselves.

The Prophet also reports it; what does it say? Never pray in it. The mosque founded on piety that day, the Quba Mosque — to pray in it is surely more right. In it are men who love to purify themselves. And Allah loves those who purify themselves much, it says. Surely Allah Almighty loves those who purify themselves much. The purification meant here is not cleaning our clothes, our underwear well. Of course they will clean those too; they will be clean. Avoiding sins, turning to piety, being careful about halal and haram, not breaking people's hearts, getting along well with them — such as being respectful toward the people Allah has created.

Because Allah Almighty created people deficient. Deficient. There is no human who has been created whole and perfect. Because Allah Almighty says in His verse: if you had (?) mistakes, He says, We would (?), destroy you, and create servants who commit mistakes, He says. In this case, since every person is created deficient, by struggling with his nafs and gaining mastery over his nafs and being governed by Allah's verses, a person has purified himself. That is, cleansed of sins, he gives more and more, well, importance to the load of reward, so that by Allah's leave they come to be purified people. Yes. So Allah Almighty's saying "never pray in it" has many meanings. In the first meaning, if prayer in churches and synagogues begins, later on, over time — this too is Allah's religion, and the other too; I won't switch to the other religion, and I lose nothing.

"These men worship Allah too," they say, and since what these people have adopted as religion will seem pleasant to the human nafs, they will at once turn away from Islam. They will turn away.

People don't suddenly cling to something all at once anyway. How do they cling? Slowly, slowly. For example, Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) has a tree cut down at the root. Yet why would people who value trees so much have a tree cut down? And our sultan had sat under it and listened. So people begin to pledge allegiance to it. They begin tying threads, well, I don't know, ribbons to the tree. They begin making wishes. Upon this, Umar has the tree cut down. We have no bid'ah. That is, we have no such superstitions. In this case, those who approached that tree like that would tomorrow or the day after make figures, would worship them as Allah.

The idolaters too worshipped in this way anyway. And in this case that priest who had been Muslim and later went over to Christianity, there, in that place he called a mosque, will try to spread his own religion, that is, Christianity, and what will people say? Look, that's a mosque, look, this is a mosque, they will say. That is, he practices his religion there, and is it this religion he practices, they'll say. Slowly, people, as if there were a religion other than Islam — according to the verse Inna'd-dina inda'llahi'l-Islam, although the Torah, the Psalms and the Gospel are gathered in the Holy Quran, although Allah Almighty [sent] the four books to the Prophet as the Holy Quran — you know, sending it as light to the worlds — although He showed this, if people fall into division and, about the verses in the Quran, say: this we believe, this we don't, then they are unbelievers; against Allah's verses, against what He told us and made known — whoever deliberately denies a single verse of Allah is also an unbeliever. Those who make distinctions between the prophets, who say we believe this one, we don't believe that one, are also unbelievers. In this case, people who say interfaith dialogue, who with this interfaith dialogue pull people toward unbelief and, as if there were a religion other than Islam, show those religions — or what shall we call it — ideologies, we'll say now — people who present them to people as truth — their situation shows us, against the religion of Islam, what kind of ideology they use.

Yes. Second, these, by calling Jesus and Ezra the son of Allah and placing in their temples their representative statues, have set up idols to associate partners with Allah. Their acts toward these idols are people associating partners with Allah. In this respect, people do not pray in places where there are idols. For many more reasons, in churches and synagogues — as if there were a religion other than Islam — in the places of worship of the religions they invented, prayer is not performed either. Because images are forbidden in our religion.

Only places of use, like money, identity cards, (?), are exempt. Above all, prayer is never performed facing a picture. Nor is prayer performed where there is a picture. In this case, some of our people put pictures of their mother, their father, family pictures there, and pray there too. Actually, in such a case, if you have no other place to pray, you need to cover these pictures with a cloth. Our ancestors did so too. They would cover the pictures. Most didn't use pictures anyway. Yes. Never pray in it. The mosque founded on piety from the first day, the Quba Mosque — for you to pray in it is surely more right, it says. So Allah Almighty's declaring that masjids and mosques, the places allotted for prayer in the religion of Islam, as regards praying in them, are closer to piety, shows that in other temples prayer is not to be performed.

Masjids and mosques — in Islam these are places opened for worshipping Allah. The other temples, though, are places where, made to look as if in Allah's name, they associate partners with Allah. In this respect, to pray in masjids founded on piety is surely more right. With this verse — that is, only for the worship of Allah, within the religion of Islam, in the masjids and mosques built, and also in places allotted for prayer, prayer is performed, He commands.

In this case, if a person is governed by Allah Almighty's verses, governed by piety — avoiding doubtful things is piety —

from the worship he has done, more: 1 to 3, 1 to 5, 1 to 7, 1 to 70, 1 to 200 — he attains the mercy Allah Almighty will give him. Allah Almighty shows the Quba Mosque as an example; in fact, those that will continue until Judgment Day — masjids, mosques — are places within the religion of Islam allotted for the worship of Allah. That those who worship Allah, those who pray, by Allah Almighty will be purified, He makes known. Those who pray. It indicates that those who worship Allah will be purified by Allah. And it is Allah Almighty's making known. What is this? Let's say I have prayed the noon prayer.

I'm going to pray the afternoon prayer. I've made ablution. I've made my preparation. When the afternoon prayer comes, by Allah Almighty's command my sins, by the angel on the left, are taken. Taken. I pray my prayer. Before Allah Almighty I perform a prayer free of sin. After the prayer, the angel says: my Lord, shall I put his sins back? (?), He says. The sins of the person whose sins I took should be put back again. Apart from small sins, all of them — those small sins are erased, and the person goes on again with what he does, that is, between two prayers, he is cleansed of the small sins he has committed.

If he repents, if he turns to Allah with a sincere heart — "My Allah, never again; I, having come into the light from such things I committed in the age of ignorance, at a time when in Your verses I have found life, what an age of ignorance I lived through I have understood. I (?) these ever again." And if he repents with a sincere heart, Allah Almighty erases all his sins entirely. What does He say? Even if your sins had reached the clouds in the sky, these clouds in the sky — when you repent with a sincere heart, We change them into good deeds, He says. (?) We change them, He says. Yes. We are the servants of our Lord, a sovereign so abundant in forgiveness.

In this case, whether in the earlier mosques or masjids, when we pray to Allah Almighty, that is, when we worship, our Lord our sins, the small sins we committed between two prayers too, forgives us. Because Allah is pure, He loves those who purify themselves exceedingly. That is, repent to Allah, for no one (?) Him, and our Lord who subsists through His essence is exalted above all deficient attributes. In a person created deficient like this, the more he purifies himself — that is, rises from sins, flees and turns to Allah Almighty — the more Allah Almighty loves him. The meaning of purification here: by praying before Allah Almighty, people are cleansed and purified of their sins.

Whoever, apart from the obligatory prayer, apart from the obligatory prayer, prays more voluntary prayers, the more he is cleansed of sins and purified in Allah's sight, and indeed the Prophet too would pray voluntary prayers. A lot. In fact, when our mother Aisha said: O Messenger of Allah, although Allah Almighty has forgiven your future and past sins, why do you tire yourself so much — he said: O Aisha, a servant who worships my Lord abundantly — shall I not be one? So, even if He has cleansed [us] of sins, shall we not be servants who worship our Lord? Then, since we are not prophets, since in all our speech, in our movements, in our behavior we commit mistakes, through our voluntary prayers our Lord forgives us these mistakes.

According to this verse too, to people who wish to be purified beyond the obligatory prayers, the doors of opportunity opened for their purification through voluntary prayers and night prayers are shown by Allah Almighty. Is prayer not performed outside masjids, mosques and places allotted within the religion of Islam for prayer? Churches and synagogues, idol houses — since they are full of images, apart from nature scenes, praying facing these images is forbidden. Apart from these, anywhere, cleaning the place where you will pray, you can stand for prayer. Yes.