In Islam, the most important act of worship after prayer is giving zakat. The word zakat, which means abundance, cleanliness, increase and praise in Arabic, is defined in our religion as "Muslims, who are considered wealthy, to give a certain amount of certain types of goods to places determined by Allah".
The month of Ramadan disciplines our souls with fasting, our will with patience, and purifies our property with zakat and fitra. It reminds us that the poor have a right to the blessings that Allah (swt) has bestowed upon us. Therefore, the blessed month of Ramadan is a season of education and peace in which faith, worship, morality and brotherhood are reinforced. In other words, Ramadan is a month in which the most important reward is to be shaded in the shade of the Throne, to gain the success in the next life and to enter Paradise..[2]
The desire for glory and honour is a feeling that exists in human nature. People who have not reached spiritual maturity try to satisfy these feelings with their ethnicity. They consider the racial unity of blood as the reason for superiority. They despise those other than their own tribe and they think that they can elevate themselves.
The three months we are in are the months of mercy, blessings and forgiveness that Allah (swt) has bestowed upon us. Our Prophet (saw) would enter the three blessed months with a different excitement and preparation. He paid special attention to the month of Sha'ban, increased his worship, and spent most of his days fasting.
The religion of Islam has accepted man as a social and responsible being and has given him some individual and social responsibilities. One of these duties is the feeling of solidarity and brotherhood. For this reason, it is both a religious and a social duty to think about the world and society we live in and to support each other materially and morally.
Again, we are faced with a great challenge. The 7.7-magnitude earthquake, the epicentre of which was Kahramanmaraş on Monday night, caused heavy damage in the surrounding provinces and in Syria. We lost a lot of our people. Collapsed buildings, cities in ruins, those under the rubble… These horrific pictures we saw have burnt our hearts.
Great Islamic scholars generally gave the meaning of "fear of Allah" to Taqwa. Although the word Taqwa includes the meaning of fear, it does not mean to be afraid of something terrible, but to refrain from hurting the heart of a loved one, and a sensitivity to respect and responsibility towards the Creator. In this context, we have had respected scholars who explained Taqwa with the words "consciousness of the responsibilities towards Allah".
