Al-An'am 121: Do not eat from the animals that have been slaughtered without having the name of Allah mentioned upon them. This is surely a great sin. Verily, shaytans incite their friends to struggle against you. If you follow them, you will surely also become among those who associate partners with Allah.

(?) Surah Al-An'am, verse 121: Do not eat of animals they slaughtered without Allah's name being mentioned over them.

In the previous verse, as we also said before, of the animals that the polytheists, the idol worshippers, slaughtered not in Allah's name but in the name of idols — do not eat of them. If you eat, you will have believed in them, it becomes a god, and you will have associated partners with Allah, it says. This is its plain meaning. Yes.

A feeling inside keeps nudging me. "Say this too," it says. Always, constantly. Constantly. Because I am saddened, I feel I must say it. I am saddened, too. Of people living as Muslims, living people — those called stars on television who (?), Allah Almighty does not even accept their zakat. Their zakat. Their zakat is not accepted. If He had accepted it, He would have allowed their (?). This is the same verse. Look how beautifully the verses support one another. "We do not accept their zakat," it says. Because if He accepted the zakat, what he earned would become lawful. The forbidden things he had mixed in would be cleansed.

Yes. Because they went outside Allah's limits, the good deeds and charity they did are like scattering, in stormy weather, (?) the ashes of a fire, it says. Would any trace of that ash remain in that stormy weather? What they do is like that too. It passes and is gone.

As long as they do not repent.

But Satan deceives them very well. "There's still time. You're alive. Never mind. You'll repent." And finally, when the doors of repentance are closed to him, when the truth becomes visible, then that chance never comes into his hands again.

So, so, it comes from within me like this — according to these verses, they always support one another, the verses.

Do not eat of animals slaughtered without Allah's name being mentioned over them. "Surely this is a great sin," it says. You are associating partners with Allah. Those people called stars, since they live outside Allah's command, they too have turned their backs on Allah. Even if they do not associate partners. One is completely outside His command, the other associates partners with Allah. Ali Mehmet or Mehmet Ali — same thing. Yes. "Indeed, the devils inspire their friends" — that is, them — "to dispute with you." With whom? With the Muslims. Now, those stars I mentioned, they say, "He has declared us unbelievers," they say, "he did this to us," "this man says this to us," they dispute and raise hell with us.

But I am not telling you this to raise hell. I am telling you to give you life. I am telling you Allah's verses. So don't turn to me, turn to Allah.

Turn to Allah. What are you saying to me? I say what Allah says. Am I going to hide Allah's verses because you'd like that, and say words you'd like? We came to this world to be tested. If you love Allah's creation, loving what Allah has created, and turn your back on the Creator, are you a person of reason?

If you commit every kind of vice and wickedness, if you spread filth around, if you spread indecency around, if you live outside Allah's command, is it I who loves this, or is it Allah addressing you so that you come to the right path?

If you drag people into evil, if you (?) them onto a bad path, will Allah accept your (?), your zakat, sir, that good deed you did without regard to lawful or forbidden? Allah Almighty says it, not I; the verse is like that: "We do not accept their zakat either," it says. What is the reason? Look how nicely I'm explaining it; I'm explaining it to give you life. What you do is filth, I do not accept it; as long as you continue with it, your zakat is not accepted either. If your zakat is not accepted, you are outside Islam, because Islam has five pillars: the shahada, prayer, fasting, zakat, and hajj.

Do you have your hajj?

Even if you have your zakat, will your zakat be accepted in this case?

Yes. What do you have to do with this verse? How are you any different, by the same verse? Do not eat of animals slaughtered without Allah's name being mentioned over them, it says. Why? Because they set up a being as a partner to Allah. A partner being. And they vowed it to that as Allah, vowed it as a god, and ate it. If you eat it too, it says, you too will have associated partners with Allah like them, it says.

How are you any different from that? (?), Allah says to you. If you become a star of unbelief, if you spread indecency, if with all your immorality you expose yourself stark naked to people, wouldn't you, compared with those women in the slave markets, exhibited in the hands of the slave traders, fall to a lower state? Well, there it was the slave owner who did this exhibiting. You are exhibiting yourself. What connection do you have left with humanity?

With a being created honorable.

So don't (?) me. And don't say to me, why do you talk like this. Take your head in your hands and think. Think, because of your creation as a human being.

Yes.

Do not eat of animals slaughtered without Allah's name being mentioned over them. Surely this is a great sin.

Indeed, the devils inspire their friends to dispute with you. Yes. When I speak the truth, when I recite the verses: "Look, the hodja says this, what kind of hodja is this?" — at once courts, sir, prosecutors, this and that, they start making a fuss. Not at me — I'm not the one saying this. Don't target me. Can you shift Allah's verse? Can you remove it from there? Take it to court. Take your own conscience to court.

"If you obey them, you will surely be among those who associate partners with Allah," it says. So your path is separate. Our paths are separate. What would it cost you to come to the straight path?

What would it cost you to save yourself? But Satan won't let go of your collar. You don't use your will. You don't know how to slap Satan. Slapping Satan is done with Allah's verses.

Allah Almighty commands us not to eat the meat of animals (?) strangled, dead, or torn apart by wild animals, but only to eat the meat of animals slaughtered with Allah's name mentioned over them and slaughtered for Allah. And this is what is lawful. Lawful. And what is forbidden?

Those who shape with their hands the materials Allah created and make idols, and hold them equal to Allah, and ask of what Allah created, and take it as a god and vow sacrifices to them — since they associate partners with Allah, do not eat their meat. Because if you eat it, you too will have accepted that shirk, it says. Because there is no god but Allah. Yes. Allah Almighty commands that the meat of animals the polytheists slaughtered or strangled for the gods they invented in the name of other than Allah be eaten, not be eaten. Yes. Some people, because they are slaves to their nafs, for their own interest — those who associate partners with Allah, those who slaughter offerings for them as gods — a person eating from this slaughtered meat means that this person adopts those who are in the same position as those who associate partners with Allah, so that, God forbid, the person falls into unbelief.

Yes, "Hodja, how should I know, among so much meat, which one was not slaughtered in its name?" You're right, but they slaughter it explicitly for the idols, for the idols, and there among themselves they eat it and distribute it. These animals being slaughtered are slaughtered for meat. For meat. Even if it is slaughtered without the basmala, even if it is slaughtered by an unbeliever without the basmala — intentions; deeds depend on intentions, after all — since it is slaughtered as meat, as meat Allah created, and since you say the basmala when you sit down to eat, you say Bismillah. When you say "In the name of Allah", the matter is settled, it is cleansed.

It is in Allah's name. In meat, sir, since it was slaughtered as meat, in this case, when you say the basmala, when you say "in Allah's name", you can eat that meat.

In one verse it commands: do not be like them. So do not eat the meat of animals slaughtered in the name of those that the people in the darkness of shirk adopt as gods. Because there is no such god, nor a single atom created by it, that what comes from it, what is offered to you, you should eat. Nothing comes from it. And there is no creator other than Allah.

The whole created universe belongs to Allah, the One. From the atom to the globe. Whatever He created belongs to Allah, who brings into being from nothing. If there were another god besides Allah, each would take what it created, the other what it created, and by now everything would long since have drowned in corruption. Existence would have perished. Yes. O person, if you believe in something other than Allah as a god, and, as if it were a thing created by that god you invented, vow a sacrifice to it or eat its meat, you will have associated partners with Allah. All created things belong to Allah.

The things Allah bestows are for Allah, and if they are slaughtered in His name and conform to Allah's commands and prohibitions, they are eaten. Otherwise a person becomes a sinner, rebelling against Allah. Yes.