The President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş was the guest of “İftara Vuslat” (Meeting with Iftar) program that was live broadcast on Akit TV.

Mentioning the importance of worships on the program, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş said that the month of Ramadan is an occasion for the salvation of believers.

Expressing that they are very happy to have rejoined the month of Ramadan after the months of Rajab and Shaban, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş said, “Three months before we made dua to the Almighty Allah and said, ‘O the Almighty Allah, make the months of Rajab and Shaban be full of blessings for us and let us rejoin with the month of Ramadan.’ Allah accepted our dua and we have rejoined with the month of Ramadan. We have made efforts to benefit from the months of Rajab and Shaban, inshallah, we have also benefitted from their abundance.”

“In the first ten days of the month of Ramadan, we expected mercy from the Almighty Allah, inshallah we benefitted from it. In the second ten days of the month of Ramadan, we worked to gain forgiveness. The Almighty Allah states, ‘Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous.’ One needs to be quick to ask forgiveness in order to be a person who does good deeds. The Almighty Allah heralds that forgiveness is going to come with heaven in the end. One needs to be quick for these glad tidings.” said the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş by reminding that, of the month of Ramadan, the first part is mercy, the middle part is forgiveness and the last part is salvation from sins.

“Even a smile is a sadaqah”

Stating that spending in the way of Allah both in wealth and shortage is the characteristics of those who are righteous, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş continued his words as follows,

“One needs to be righteous. You need to try to find a way of spending in the way of Allah both in wealth and shortage. Okay, we understand how to spend in the way of Allah in wealth, but how to do it in shortage? Then, it is said that you need to control your anger. Controlling your anger is also a way of spending in the way of Allah. Looking at the face of your brothers and sisters is also a way of spending in the way of Allah. Prophet Muhammad says, ‘Smiling in your brother's face is an act of charity.’ That is to say, one doesn’t have to be wealthy in order to spend in the way of Allah and give sadaqah. Even a smile is a sadaqah. A person’s controlling his anger, being patient, showing tolerance when facing some events actually are the bricks of the path that is going to take them to forgiveness. This is how you become a person who does good deeds. And the Almighty Allah loves the people who do good deeds. Inshallah, in these days of forgiveness, days of mercy we have become people who do good deeds and reached forgiveness. Finally, these last ten days, in which we are living, are the days of salvation from the torture in Hell. The final goal of believers is to reach salvation. One of the most important characteristics of this salvation is to reach salvation from the torture in Hell.”

“One of the biggest tests of today is killing our time with things that we have nothing to do with”

Explaining the characteristics of believers with the verses, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş made the evaluation of, “It is not for a Muslim to be busy with meaningless things. We call such things useless. One of the biggest tests, calamities, troubles of today is killing our time with and spending our time on things that we have nothing to do with and don’t belong to us.”

“We should be busy with the Holy Qur’an tilawat mostly after fasting and establishing prayer in the month of Ramadan. Reciting the Holy Qur’an is a worship. In the articulation of the letters correctly, Prophet Muhammad says that ‘Whoever recites a letter from Allah's Book, then he receives the reward from it, and the reward of ten the like of it. I do not say that Alif Lam Mim is a letter, but Alif is a letter, Lam is a letter and Mim is a letter.’ The Messenger of Allah explains it very clearly. There are thousands of letters in the Holy Qur’an and he stated that hadith in order to explain such a great worship it is in his eyes. This is really a great opportunity for believers. We say that every Muslim should fully recite the Holy Qur’an at least once in the month of the Holy Qur’an.” said the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş by reminding that the Holy Qur’an was started to be sent down in the month of Ramadan.

“We don’t want that our children’s characters are built distant from the morals of Islam”

Mentioning the importance of the Qur’an courses for 4-6 years aged children, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş stated the followings,

“The President of Religious Affairs reached almost 200 thousand children last year before the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to Allah. Alhamdulillah, there is a (Qur’an course for 4-6 years aged children) without exception in every province and district of our country. Our children should learn about respect, love, prayer, ablution while they are young. When we should teach our children the fact that Prophet Muhammad loved children, of course, we do it at these ages. There is a beautiful hadith of Prophet Muhammad. He says, ‘Teach your children the religious knowledge until they are 7 years old.’ Teach your respect, love, honesty, universal values to your children. Teach them respect for parents, love for parents because Prophet Muhammad says, ‘He isn't of us who isn't kind to our youngsters, and shows no respect to our elders.’ We need to teach them these until they are 7 years old. We, the Muslims, must be effective in building the character of our children. We shouldn’t leave it to other people. We don’t want that our children’s characters are built distant from the morals of Islam, the principles of the Holy Quran, and the principles of Sunnah. This is our great responsibility. Because the Almighty Allah states in the Holy Qur’an, ‘Save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is Men and Stones.’”

“We are focusing on online guidance programs due to the coronavirus pandemic”

“As always, the Presidency of Religious Affairs continues to serve our nation in the month of Ramadan, too. We are focusing on online guidance programs on the digital environment especially during this coronavirus pandemic process so that we can always perform our duty under every condition and everywhere.” said the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş by expressing that the Qur’an courses are closed due to the measures that are taken against the coronavirus pandemic but the Qur’an education is continued to be given online on digital platforms.

Emphasizing the importance of zakat, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş used the following expressions, “Everyone should protect his neighbor. Everyone should protect his quarter. If there is poverty in a place, zakat payers should go there and help the poor people. As the ummah of Prophet Muhammad who says, “Who sleeps while his neighbor is hungry is not one of us”, if we don’t give our zakat duly our duties as Muslims aren’t regarded fully performed. We should attach importance to zakat as much as prayer, fasting and hajj.”

“Some of our hodjas turned a corner of mosques into the charity market”

Underlining the fact that the people of Anatolia has always been near the oppressed and the sufferer not only where they lived but also wherever the oppressed and the sufferer live, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş continued his words, “Only Turkiye Diyanet Foundation stood by the oppressed and the sufferer in 81 provinces and 922 districts in the homeland. Hodja of a quarter identified the poor families at that quarter. There is an application called ‘book of debts’.  He paid their debts to markets and groceries without revealing his identity, Alhamdulillah. Maybe such things are not very much visible in the public opinion mostly. However, we say that it is good to have hodjas and it is beautiful that our mosques today are not used only for establishing prayer. Some of our hodjas turned a corner of mosques into the charity market. There are tens of examples like this that have been realized by hodjas. The volunteers of Turkiye Diyanet Foundation are standing by the poor, the oppressed, the sufferer people at iftar and sahur tables in 78 countries although there are many risks due to the coronavirus pandemic conditions now.”

“If the condition of an oppressed person doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable, it means that my Muslimship has some deficiency”

The President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş stated the followings by evaluating his visit to Idlib town of Syria two weeks ago,

“It was a risky visit in various aspects but these risks cannot avoid us from accepting the invitation of ‘You are the One Expected’. We say that your brothers and sisters are waiting for you, don2t we? A call, an invitation from Turkiye Diyanet Foundation: ‘You are the One Expected’. I undertook that expression of ‘You’ and went there. I went there with my wife. There are three and a half million people who live as covered with dust and dirt. Sometimes those who don’t witness it may listen to these like a story but this is not a story but the reality. No water, no electricity, no house, no food, I mean you cannot deal with these noes if you start to count them. It is a place where all the shortages are the case. May the Almighty Allah protect everyone from civil war. May the Almighty Allah never leave anyone homeless and stateless. Now, do you think we are going to only read this hadith, close the book and place it in our library? Please listen to this hadith, ‘Muslims are like one body of a person; if the eye is sore, the whole body aches, and if the head aches, the whole body aches.’ If a limb of your body has a disorder, other parts of your body also feel it. Believers should be like this. Prophet Muhammad advises us like this. If the condition of an oppressed person or a sufferer, let it be in Syria, Libya, Palestine, Tanzania, Africa, Eurasia, the Balkans, South America, wherever he is, doesn’t make you feel uncomfortable or his suffering and poverty don’t make me feel uncomfortable it means that our Muslimship has some deficiency, which means we don’t live by this hadith. For this reason, the Presidency of Religious Affairs tries to be present all over the world.”

“We are carrying out mosque courses at the Hagia Sophia Mosque”

Expressing that the reopening of the Hagia Sophia for worship as a mosque was welcomed joyfully in the Islamic world, the President of Religious Affairs Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş made the evaluation of, “As the President of Religious Affairs, first of all, I wrote a letter to the other Presidents of Religious Affairs and the Ministers of Religious Affairs in Islamic countries. It was a letter to share our happiness. Such great answers I received after that letter. Of course, we were expecting it. The Hagia Sophia Mosque today is in the way of being a school. As of its reopening as a mosque on July 24, 2020, we have been carrying out mosque courses at the Hagia Sophia. We are carrying out tafsir (interpretation), hadith and Qur’an courses. Now at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Holy Qur’an is recited at 16 separate points of the mosque during fajr prayer time. I said that the Hagia Sophia Mosque is a school. We are going to improve and continue its characteristic as a school, we want it to go back to its original state.”