President of Religious Affairs Erbaş, appears in the program ‘Ramazan Sevinci’ in TRT 1 

During his speech, President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Erbaş made evaluations about the month of Ramadan and the services carried out by the Presidency of Religious Affairs during this month.

In the program broadcast live from the courtyard of the Hagia Sofia Grand Mosque, President of Religious Affairs Erbaş congratulated our nation and the Islamic world on the holy month of Ramadan, "the sultan of the eleven months" in which the Holy Qur'an was revealed, noting that Ramadan is the month of zakat, fasting, tarawih and fitrah, which gathers all the beauties in itself.

Noting that it is necessary to make good use of the holy times that are instrumental in the salvation of people, President Erbaş said, " We need to make good use of the Raghaib Night, Miraj Night, Barat Night, Qadr Night, Mawlid Night, Fridays, and "the three months" including the month of Ramadan. These times are holy times that are instrumental in the resurrection of the soul, and the lord and sultan of these is the month of Ramadan."

“The Holy Qur’an is the book of life.”

Emphasizing that the Month of Ramadan is the month of the Holy Qur’an, President Erbaş, expressed that the Month of Ramadan should be highly benefitted from in terms of Qur’an. 

Recommending that those who do not know how to recite the Holy Qur’an should aim to learn with the advantage of the Month of Ramadan, President Erbaş has said ‘’ I can assure our brothers who do not know how to recite the Holy Qur’an that they can learn to recite in one month if they are determined enough. They should at least recite the whole Qur’an once and try to understand. Our Allah (swt) is encouraging us to understand and think. This is the ultimate aim, ultimate goal. To understand the Qur’an and regulate our lives according to Qur’an. This is one of the most crucial goals of believers.

Specifying that the understanding and lifestyle of Prophet Muhammad (saw) and His Companions’ should be taken as an example, President Erbaş continued ‘’ Qur’an is the guide of life. In Our Mother Aisha’s (ra) words, Our Prophet (saw) was like a living Qur’an. Each Muslim should be like a living Qur’an. If we comply with the commands of the Holy Qur’an and keep away from the prohibitions and restrictions, the society will be in peace. This is the goal of worshipping.

“The Month of Ramadan is the month of Zakat”

Remarking that the Month of Ramadan is the month of Zakat just as it is the month of fasting and indicating that Muslims has made donating Zakat during the month of Ramadan a tradition, President Erbaş has made evaluations, ‘’ Muslims who are obliged to donate Zakat should donate by calculating precisely; it would be so beneficial to maybe donate even more than the regular Zakat amount, that is, more than one-fortieth. As for now, our approximately 14 million brothers are effected from the earthquake. Our people ended up homeless.

Emphasizing the importance of Zakat which is one of the five pillars of islam, President Erbaş continued his words:

“Zakat is just as important as salah and as important as fasting. In the Holy Quran, zakat is mentioned together with prayer. There is a sensitive point in the verse: 'They do it for zakat.' What do they do for zakat? They work for zakat. In other words, believers work with the idea of giving more zakat. The more zakat they give, the cleaner their wealth becomes. He cleans his property by giving the poor, the destitute, the poor and the poor. The essence of the word zakat is cleansing, purification, being purified. ‘They do it for zakat’. It is as if the verse is ordering the rich believers to keep zakat alive in the back of their minds while they are working. In other words, they do not neglect zakat, they never forget it. How important it is. If we embrace our prayers a little more wholeheartedly in these Ramadan days, we will become a healthy individual and a healthy society.”

“May Allah (swt) bless the search and rescue teams’’

Repeating his get well wishes to the earthquake victims, President Erbaş emphasized the importance of building strong buildings and said:

"Causing the death of one person is like killing the whole humanity. There is a verse. See, being the cause. In other words, you can cause the death of that person by cutting a column that will cause the building to collapse. You can also be the cause if you build the building without the necessary conditions that is, without paying attention to the concrete, iron, ground. Those who build buildings, contractors and homeowners must act with this responsibility in mind. Saving one person is like saving the whole humanity. Just as those who cause the death of a person commit a sin, we have seen many contractors who say, 'I used this much iron, this much cement, I paid attention to the concrete so that it would be stronger than it should be'. They also get the reward for that. Because that building did not collapse.

The verse that gives us goosebumps every time we read it, 'He who causes the death of one person is like he has caused the death of all mankind. He who saves one person is as if he has saved all of humanity.' Don't our brothers and sisters working in search and rescue, struggling to save one person, rejoice when they save one person; don't they rejoice as if they have saved the whole humanity? All institutions, may Allah be pleased with them all. Within the framework of AFAD, other institutions and non-governmental organizations have put up great efforts.  We have seen the verse 'Help each other in goodness and taqwa' come to life. May Allah be pleased with them all."

“A person of faith is a person of conscience”

Inviting people to be conscientious, President Erbaş continued his words:

"Conscience is a very important thing. Even in this disaster situation, if people can be unscrupulous and unfair, they should test their faith. People with faith are people with conscience and mercy. In some provinces, rents have doubled or tripled within a month. Do you know what the reason is? The fact that many disaster victims have come there and they are looking for a flat, a house to put a roof over their heads, mercy. Believers, our citizens need to be very careful about this. There has been a great disaster there, and we need to help people as a result of this disaster. Our Lord says, 'They are those who donate in prosperity and adversity,' See, our Lord commands people to share what they have even in times of scarcity. You are abusing this, you are being unfair. You are being unscrupulous. You are increasing rents and house prices. This does not befit our nation. Our advice to our people on this issue is to make some self-criticism. Let them put themselves in the shoes of people in difficulty."

“Presidency of Religious Affairs is endeavoring to heal the wounds”

Stating that the Presidency of Religious Affairs has been continuing its services in the earthquake zones from the first moments of the earthquake until now, President Erbaş said:

“Our state, nation and non-governmental institutions were in the area. As the Presidency of Religious Affairs we have been putting up a hard work to heal the wounds. We have made approximately fifteen hodjas receive moral mentoring education. They are going to the area. We have built approximately five hundred Masjids in the tent cities and container cities. Tarawih prayers, Muqabala and conversations are currently happening. We have made classrooms for our kids. As we said before, we call them 4-6 age classroom our Diyanet Kids. Most of our kids, almost forget the loneliness within the counselling of our hodjas, especially our Qur’an hodjas who are bounding with children with a motherly affection. We are trying to share their pain in order to make them forget the pain of the earthquake.

Our Türkiye Diyanet Foundation has so far delivered one thousand six hundred trucks of aid to the earthquake zone. On the first day of Ramadan, we had our iftar meal with our disaster-stricken brothers and sisters in Maraş. Our President Mr. Erdoğan was also there. On the second day of Ramadan, we performed Friday prayers with our disaster victims in Maraş. We went to Hatay and had iftar with our disaster victims in Hatay. We tried to reach as many as we could. Our spiritual support services teams continue their services alternately. We will continue this mission until our brothers and sisters return to their own homes from tent cities, container cities and places where they are temporarily staying.”

“Zakat can be donated for permanent housing’’

Commenting on the question of whether zakat can be given for the needs of earthquake victims and the construction of permanent housing, President Erbaş noted:

“Our High Board of Religious Affairs studied this issue and stated that our brothers and sisters who are zakat payers can also give their zakat for permanent housing. For this, a zakat account had to be opened by AFAD. AFAD opened the zakat account. Currently, permanent houses can be built with the zakat money collected there. Our disaster-stricken brothers and sisters who should benefit from those permanent houses should be selected from those who are able to receive zakat. AFAD is doing the coordination in between. We can also send our zakat to earthquake victims. The people to whom we give our zakat should only be those who are able to receive zakat. From that point of view, we should be careful not to confuse the account where the fitrah and zakat are collected with other accounts.”

President Erbaş, reminded that the sadaqah al-fitr amount determined by the High Board of Religious Affairs is the minimum amount, and the amount of zakat is at least one-fortieth of a person’s wealth.