Al-Baqarah 278: Oh you who believe, fear Allah. If you truly believe, abandon the existing interest claims you have.

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 278. Look how we listen. (?) from behind, (?) our daughter is listening. O you who believe! Fear Allah! If you truly believe, give up the interest still owed to you, He says. Now Allah Almighty begins His verse with ya eyyühellezine amenü. To those who believe. But the Quran came to the worlds. It came to mankind. Although it came to mankind, why does Allah Almighty not address them all, but addresses those who believe? The Quran came to the worlds. So is there a distinction here? Allah Almighty is free of any deficient attribute. He does not speak in vain. About the Beloved of the Almighty, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), there is also a verse: he does not speak in vain.

So Allah Almighty never speaks in vain. But only those who believe are bound by the Quran. And Allah Almighty, of the Holy Quran He sent to the worlds, what? Whoever is bound by it, He addresses them here. Had He said to them, to them too, 'don't (?) interest', who would listen? Who will listen? Had they listened, this verse of Allah Almighty they would have heeded: Inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-islâm.

Since they do not listen, while He says Inne'd-dîne inda'llâhi'l-islâm, 'with Me the religion is Islam', they say: 'No, we follow the Torah, the Psalms or the Gospel. We do not listen to your Quran.' Don't they say so? In fact they believe neither in the Gospel, nor the Torah, nor the Psalms.

Hodja, they have a book in their hands, don't they? If they had believed (the books in their hands are filled with human fabrications, while the true ones are in the Holy Quran), they would believe in the Quran. Now in this situation, if a person does not believe in the Quran, what does Allah Almighty do now? To those who believe: don't you follow their way. Whose? The way of those who consume interest. What does He say in a verse? Their parading in luxury in this world is only for a short time, He says.

This short time, short compared to what? A person lives 70 years, 80 years, 100 years. A thousand years here are like one day of the hereafter. A life of 70–80 years is like an hour, an hour and a half. In this case a person will certainly not follow the way they have taken. Who are they? Non-Muslims.

In our religion interest is one of the worst sins. One of the bad sins, one of the major sins. All sins are bad, but it is one of the major sins.

Allah Almighty does not want people to suffer harm from one another. Would a father discriminate between his children? Well, if he does discriminate, what does he do? They ask the Prophet: whom do they call a tyrant? A father who discriminates between his children is also a tyrant, he says. Well, Allah Almighty, with His attribute of the Most Merciful, with His attribute of giving mercy to the worlds, with His attribute of e leysallâhu bi ahkemi'l-hâkimîn, would He ever discriminate between His servants? Whoever they may be on earth, He wants them not to complain about one another and to respect each other's rights.

In this respect, interest sucks a person's blood. He took (?) from Ahmet, borrowed fifty lira.

The man lends at interest. He paid his fifty lira, with interest it became seventy lira. He paid the seventy lira too, the interest became a hundred and fifty lira. In the end, for that fifty lira he takes the man's wealth or his home and land from him. His family and children are left ruined and hungry. This is a kind of fraud, a kind of usurping a person's right. Now Allah Almighty, so that interest does not spread among people, will now explain to us that it is a very great sin, here. What does He say? O you who believe, fear Allah. Why fear Allah? Because look, Allah Almighty, the absolute owner of this universe, what does He tell us? Every soul will taste death, and in the end your return is to Us, He says.

Your return is to Us. Then what return is this? In the hereafter our Lord will raise us again. Every soul will give account before Allah Almighty, at the great court of judgment. On that day, He says, without anyone being wronged, what each one has earned We will give them as their due, He says. So, O man, fear Allah, strive to carry out your Lord's command. Among people, do not commit wrong, injustice and fraud. Do not consume interest. Protect people's rights and laws. Fear Allah, tomorrow you will be brought before that great court. This world appearing rosy to you, and usurping people's rights so you can enjoy pleasures in the world for a moment: in fact, instead of that pleasure, Allah Almighty gives your heart such an unrest that in that unrest you lose track of your world too. But because the rosy-looking material side of that world seems good to you, you draw strength from it, and with that strength you try to drive away your unrest.

For how long? For that short time; when that command of the Truth (?), all of this world, what you did before your eyes, will scatter like cigarette smoke. In the hereafter you will give account of it. So, in this world, which is a guesthouse, a place where you are only passing through, turning your true home into a home of torment is not the work of a human being, or of a person of sound mind.

Yes. Fear Allah, then, He says. If you truly believe; truly, that is, if you really truly believe in being raised after death and, at the great court, before Allah Almighty, giving account, then you will tremble, He says, you will tremble. Yes. Give up the interest still owed to you, He says.

Yes.

What have we written in the commentary? Islam is believing in the Holy Quran, in Allah and His Messenger. In Islam. You fear Allah, if you truly believe,

give up the interest still owed to you; the meaning of the address 'if you truly believe' here is: let your belief not be weak, your creed not doubtful. Let your belief not be weak, and your creed not doubtful.

Do not make light of Allah's verses and act on the path your nafs shows you. Does Allah Almighty really say that? Oh, He forgives. Oh, let me take this, one says. Just so it goes this way. May Allah protect us. If you truly believe, fear Allah. Because on the Day of Resurrection, before Allah, on that day of reckoning, on a day when you have no helper and no intercessor, your faith will be your companion. What is this faith: the good deeds you have done. With them, with those earnings, you will give account before Allah Almighty. If you prefer disbelief over faith and pass into the hereafter in disbelief, on that day you will have neither a helper nor an intercessor.

If you fear such a day, give up the interest owed to you for Allah's sake, so that you may attain Allah's mercy, we say.

This 'if you truly believe', the verses, like 'Allah tells the truth', some says Allah tells the truth. Of course He will tell the truth. Words like these, Allah Almighty's, as if seeing, as if a person sees, a person Allah Almighty's or words corresponding to a person believing in Allah Almighty as if seeing Him.

Like what? Allah Almighty has you say the testimony of faith. Eşhedü en lâ ilâhe illallâh ve eşhedü enne Muhammeden abdühû ve resûlüh. This testimony of faith:

by saying it in the world, while you haven't seen Allah Almighty, by making you say it, does Allah Almighty make you testify to a thing you have not seen? After all, have you seen Allah? You will trust Allah Almighty so much, you will submit with such obedience, I mean with such conviction, that you will say: surely, surely my Lord does not make me witness to something I have not seen. You will say this with that faith. You will be devoted to Allah like that. Yes. Not you alone, all of us, all souls, in the world of souls, in the world of lahut, saw Allah Almighty, and so He has us testify. We all saw.

No one will be able to deny it. With such a creed, such a faith, such submission, now what does He say? If you truly believe, if you have faith, truly, that is, if you can submit like that, know that I have no forgiveness at all, He says. For interest, I have no forgiveness at all. In fact, in some verses to come, what does He say? They will rise from their graves as if struck by jinn, He says. Whoever continues to consume interest has declared war on Allah and His Messenger, He says. If you declare war on the Owner of the worlds, can you win? Is that possible? We will come to those later, inshallah.

Yes. Fear Allah, if you truly believe, give up the interest still owed to you, says Allah Almighty. As our Lord also said in the earlier verses, those who consume interest will rise from the graves as if struck by jinn, and moreover they are dwellers of hell forever, He says. In that case, fear Allah; the interest owed to you, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day, give it up. The fleeting pleasure of this world, the rosy look of this swamp that appears to you, leaves you exposed to the torment of the hereafter. Therefore: every soul will taste death and your return is to Allah; according to these verses, other than submitting to Allah, other than carrying out His commands, we have no gain of our own.

There is, there is a gain: I have a gain through carnal, worldly, satanic feelings. In fact that is not your gain. Events that look like gain are events that increase your torment and wrong your nafs. Understand this well.

Yes. Islam is believing in the Holy Quran, in Allah and His Messenger.

Since all divine books are already in the Holy Quran, believing in the Quran. Believing in all the prophets. You fear Allah; if you truly believe, according to the verse, give up the interest still owed to you, says Allah Almighty. The meaning of the address 'if you truly believe' here is: let your belief not be weak, your creed not doubtful. If you truly believe. Those who say 'I am Muslim' and yet consume interest, who give money at interest, while holding verses that it is incompatible with being Muslim; incompatible with what? Do not consume interest, says Allah Almighty. You consume interest.

It is incompatible with Islam. Although the verses tell people about not consuming interest, if you turn your back on these verses and that interest, which goes against Islam, you continue, your saying 'I am Muslim' makes people doubt. For those who practice usury. It made people doubt. Because Allah Almighty says in the verse that these, in this way, continue (?), are dwellers of hell forever; since He says so, you, because you deified not Allah's verses but your worldly interests and your nafs, could not give up interest. In that case, let your belief not be weak, your creed not doubtful. Why should it not be doubtful? Because every soul will taste death and your return is to Allah; according to these verses, that one day you will give account before Allah Almighty, if you know it as surely as you watch this world with these eyes, if you know and believe, then you will really, truly fear Allah.

Truly. Do not make light of Allah's verses and act on the path your nafs shows you. If you truly believe. Fear Allah. Because on the Day of Resurrection, before Allah, on that day of reckoning, on a day when you have no helper and no intercessor, your faith will be your companion. What is this faith? My Allah, I believed in Your existence; in the unseen world, though I did not see it, I believed in the unseen. Your life was like that. I believed in the unseen and carried out Your commands. What did you bring? You brought good deeds. You brought a load of good deeds. You brought your (?). Those (?) will appear before you.

They will be your proof. Proof that you believed in Allah, that you had faith. Your sins, though, being with your nafs, will be the punishment for going against Allah's verses. Whichever is greater, you (?) to that side. Yes. So on a day when we have no helper, no one, no intercessor, in the presence of Allah Almighty, Owner of us all, our earnings are the good deeds we have done. Since the good deeds we did for Allah show that we believed in our Lord and did these things for Him, our Lord will reward us in that world. This is what true faith is. Yes, if you prefer disbelief over faith and pass into the hereafter in disbelief, on that day you will have neither a helper nor an intercessor.

If you fear such a day, give up the interest owed to you for Allah's sake, so that you may attain Allah's mercy.