Al-Anfal 1: They ask you about the spoils of war. Say; “Spoils of war belong to Allah and Allah’s Messenger. Thus, if you are mu’min (believers), fear Allah, straighten relations among yourselves and obey Allah and Allah’s Messenger.”

Surah Al-Anfal, verse 1. We begin our lesson. They ask you about the spoils of war. Say: the spoils belong to Allah and the Prophet. Yes, is there a need for the property that is from Allah? To the public treasury, which belongs to Allah; the Prophet does not need property either; to the public treasury, to help Allah's servants. Yes, so if you are believers, fear Allah, set things right between you, obey Allah and His Messenger. In the verse Allah Almighty sent His verses to hold a light before people. Because He created people deficient in intellect. People created deficient in intellect, even if they decide correctly, cannot know to what extent their decisions are right.

But in their actual deeds, the things they do afterwards show whether they are right or wrong. In many matters, where we understood correctly, we see that the right things were wrong. Also, within the matters we hold to be right, there are things more right than the right ones. That is, as the intellect develops, we see the better truth of everything. In this case, Allah Almighty too, with His verses, shows us, within the rightest of the right, what is right. Yes. The spoils of war belong to Allah and His Messenger, it says. In the past, the spoils won in wars were gathered together and burned.

Later, the spoils taken from wars were sometimes, as time passed, customs change of course, divided up.

In this case, for discord to be removed, for the state to grow strong,

for people within a state to look to the future more securely and more safely, for that state to reach the condition of advanced people or surpass them, the state needs material means, it needs money. If we do not pay our taxes to our state, if we make the state weak, we end up squandering the money in our own pocket, for as the state weakens devaluations increase, and as devaluations increase the value of our money falls; we end up squandering the money in our own pocket. Therefore taxes are to be paid so that the state grows strong. The spoils of war will remain with the state. And as the state grows strong in this way, your future will be more secure.

People will live a safer life. Unfortunately some people who do not know themselves,

we will call them carefree people. Sir, what did they use to say? State property is a sea, whoever does not eat from it is a pig. The state is a sea, whoever does not eat is a pig, they say. Sir, to weaken the state, people, these enemies of the state, those who had set their eyes on the lands of this state, began among people to make such words widespread. Moreover, mindsets claiming that this state is a farm, and that this farm must be shared out among people, blatantly emerged as well. After that, fictitious exports came about. After that, tax evasion came about. After that, customs, (?) robberies came about. Now, thankfully our ancestors, may Allah be pleased with them, left such a state that, from inside, tactless people tried to sell this state, and from outside foreign centers of power tried to rob this state, still, praise be to Allah, we are standing.

Yes. If the state is strong, we are strong too.

Today the United States of America is in the position of a strong state. Because the laws that will protect their state they have brought together. Everyone their own state; there are 51 stars. Those stars each form a state, a province. So that each state can keep itself standing and grow strong, they have formed unity and solidarity. And together with this unity and solidarity they have grown strong. And the people in that state also see themselves as safe. Of course, Allah knows the end of everything. Therefore Allah Almighty too, so that a state grows strong, declares that the spoils belong to Allah and His Messenger.

Allah has no need of what He created. Because He loves His servants very much, the spoils that fall to Allah will remain in the state's treasury. From the state's treasury, because Allah loves His servants, help will be given to them from the public treasury. That state will grow strong, and with the state being strong you will find life. In this case, when He says it belongs to Allah and His Messenger, since the Messenger has no need of money, he is both the head of state, and the head of state is also the commander-in-chief. In this case, in both cases he both protects the state's property and, as commander-in-chief, is responsible for all these goods.

What a fine law Allah Almighty has laid down.

They ask you about the spoils of war, they ask you about the spoils of war. Say: the spoils belong to Allah and the Prophet. So if you are believers, fear Allah, set things right between you, obey Allah and His Messenger. That is, do not fall into division over those goods, do not, in this division, quarrel with one another, and preserve your unity and solidarity, it says.

Allah Almighty sent the Holy Quran to teach people what they did not know, and as a light and a source of guidance before them. Before Islam came, people would gather the spoils they took in war together and destroy them by burning. With Islam, when, in the wars that were won, the fate of the spoils taken in battle was asked about, Allah Almighty, by declaring that these spoils belong to Allah and His Messenger to people in this verse, held a light before them. In this verse, the meaning of saying the spoils belong to Allah and His Messenger: the Prophet (peace be upon him), being Allah's messenger, and therefore the elder and leader of people, is both head of state and army commander.

Therefore, the spoils taken in wars belong to the state. In the verse where it says, so if you are believers, fear Allah, set things right between you: before this verse came, people wanted to divide the spoils of war, and among them some disputes would arise. When this verse came, the believers, obeying Allah and His Messenger, consented to the spoils remaining in the public treasury, that is, with the state. With this verse Allah Almighty also sets things right between people. Like how? If the spoils of war had been divided, I would have had my eye on the spoils that so-and-so got. Even if I had been given trillions, because I desired that, there would be dispute. In that case, since people's nafs never gets its fill either, people would covet the goods the others had taken.

Or else disagreements would arise in the meantime. You didn't deserve that, I'll take this, I killed so many enemies, sir, I did this, I did that, like that, among people.

Especially think of those whose religion will be weak. Those who come later; I am not saying it about the Companions. For those who come later, after the war, this time a civil war, entirely, would begin. For this reason Allah Almighty set things right between people with a fine law. The rich have no need of material goods anyway. When the spoils remain in the public treasury, the poor too, from the treasury, as much as they want, by the command of Allah Almighty (?). And today our state, mashallah, to the poor and needy, even if a little, as far as it can, gives help. That too is a public treasury.

Yes.

May Allah be pleased with those who live Islam and keep it alive, and with those who consciously live Islam.