At the beginning of his message, Edip Gümüş quoted a verse of the Holy Qur’an that says: “Among the believers there are those who have remained true to the covenant they made with Allah. Among those some of them have fulfilled their vow and others await the appointed time.1 They have not changed in the least.”

“Praise be to the Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammed, who is the humanity's Guide to salvation and the Seal of the Prophets, his family, his companions and those who follow his path until the day of the Resurrection,” Gümüş continued.

“We commemorate our guide Hüseyin Velioğlu, who was martyred on 17th January 2000 on his path that he had taken with the desire for martyrdom with the goal of glorifying Islam and the cause of our Lord, on the 22nd anniversary of his martyrdom with mercy and gratitude,” Gümüş said, adding that January 2020 was another stage of hard trials and tribulations for the jamaah which had set off for Da‘wah (the act of inviting or calling people to embrace Islam), tabligh (to make Islam's message known to people) and jihad.

“The January 17 was a very painful, sad, and difficult period”

“Before January 17th, we were working for the pleasure of Allah by paying heavy prices and making great sacrifices. But our Lord has sent us a different testing and trial process with the incident we had on January 17. It was a very painful, sad, and difficult period. Praise be to my Lord, the blood of our martyrs, the sweat of our invitees, the prayer of our elders, and the tears shed by our orphans have added abundance to our efforts. Today, we are working within our means and continuing to serve in accordance with the duty that Allah has imposed on us wherever we can reach.”

“On the occasion of the January 17^th, I would like to express some opinions on some matters:

“Certainly, Islam forbids extravagance and waste”

My dear brothers and sisters!

Human beings have consumed the resources of the world very quickly, and we all experience the consequences of this excessive consumption. On the one hand, there are spoiled people who spend and waste, on the other hand, there are people living on the border of hunger, children dying of hunger. No matter where we are and what financial means we have, a limit has been set on spending in the Qur'an and Sunnah for us Muslims. The measure is very clear; waste is forbidden, and Allah does not like those who waste. Spending little for ourselves and spending a lot in the path of Allah is one of the best legacies left to us by our Prophet, his family, and his companions. The first Islamic century (Century of Happiness) is full of examples of men and women who have abandoned waste and competed with each other in spending in the path of Allah. We have to abide by these measurements. We must not be like people without Islamic sensitivities. As Muslims, we should learn to live on little food, little clothing, and few belongings. Therefore, we can help our close and distant relatives more, our brothers and sisters who are in poverty both in the country and abroad.

“You should measure fully, and weigh correctly with the scale. Even if you make a loss, you should always be honest in your dealings”

My brothers who are tradespeople!

We see that there are serious troubles regarding the ethics of trade and work as the economic crisis deepens in the country. Above all, you should never neglect the principles of the Holy Qur’an in your dealings. Assume as a religious order to write down your dealings and there be witnesses whenever you trade with one another although it is not fard (a religious obligation or duty) in Islam. Those don’t damage your friendship, on the contrary, they strengthen it. You should measure fully, and weigh correctly with the scale. Even if you make a loss, you should always be honest in your dealings.

A hadith, which is said to be one of the last wills of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), says that ‘You must be truthful. Verily, truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man continues to be truthful and encourages honesty until he is recorded with Allah as truthful. And beware of falsehood. Verily, falsehood leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the Hellfire. A man continues to tell lies and encourages falsehood until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.” Let this hadith be your beacon in your life. We want your neighbors, friends, and even those who don't like you to take you as an example with this character trait. Every Muslim shopkeeper should behave like this. In particular, we expect our brothers and their children, who have paid a price in serving Islam and Muslims, to obey this more.

“Unaffordable wedding costs keep youngsters away from marriage”

Prompting marriage, facilitating marriages as well as guiding and helping young people to continue their marriages are always at the top of our usual agenda. Islam builds the union of men and women on marriage and wants to create a healthy society formed with strong family ties. The rising number of divorces and the dwindling number of marriages or the delaying marriages to thirties old are also becoming common among Muslims. Unaffordable wedding costs keep youngsters away from marriage. Unfortunately, marriages made with financial motives, based on selfishness and the desire to live comfortably, unfortunately do not last long. Our life experience has shown that pompous weddings, unnecessary expenses that will put the son-in-law and his family in debt, bracelets, and necklaces bought have brought no happiness to anyone. Those who got married in this way were not as happy as those who were content with three or five necessary items. Let's teach and show our young people about marriages that last a lifetime, with loyalty, compassion, self-sacrifice, understanding, and mutual respect. Therefore, they will have a long-lasting marriage like their parents, and be with each other until old ages.

Young people! Choose righteous wives for yourselves. Parents! Make marriages easier. Pave the way for young people to marry easily, and thus avoid the forbidden practices in this way. We want our young people to be able to get married even during their pupilages, if necessary, they can stay in one-room houses and continue their studies. In this way, they will support each other shoulder to shoulder and they will appreciate better the importance of the marriages they started with the challenges, their marriage will be stronger and continuous inshallah.

“My young brothers! You are our hope that will shoulder the struggle in the cause of Allah in the future “

My young brothers!

You are our most precious, our priority. Do not trust in and be vigilant about the currents that name and classify you by some letters of the alphabet, which aim to make you pursue the carnal desires in a way that is far from Islam and engage in issues of their own accord. You are a Muslim youth. Of course, we know that each time shapes its own persons, adds different features to human beings, but these are not things that will fundamentally change humanity, as it is thought, and don’t produce a completely different model of mankind. The core of human nature is unique and clean, which is Islam. Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) says that “Seven people Allah will give them His Shade on the Day when there would be no shade but the Shade of His Throne”, and then ranks second “the youth who grew up worshiping Allah”, giving you glad tidings of Allah’s mercy. All of you were created to serve Allah, with a suitable intellectual and spiritual ability. You should take the scientific and technical devices of the time, combine them with your Islamic identity that comes from your nature and use them to serve the Islamic cause. You should read, live by Islam, act according to Allah’s rules, stay in the circle of ‘halal’, stay away from ‘haram’. You should not forget the Judgment Day, the reckoning, the balance, and the Hereafter. You should be chaste, diligent, merciful, sincere, honest, loyal, people of mosques, people of knowledge, and pious inviters. You are our hope, our future that will take over the Islamic cause as a trust. We are fully confident that you will be aware of this and will do what is necessary.

“It is our responsibility to help our oppressed brothers like Afghans all over the world”

Our Afghan brothers, who have faced invasion, massacre, immigration, and oppression for years, expelled the invading America and its allies from their countries with a struggle that makes us all happy and declared that they will implement Islamic laws in their countries. We knew that the USA and its supporters -even if they had withdrawn their troops- would not leave our brothers alone and would want to fail them with intelligence games, internal and external seditions. Indeed, that's how it happened. They froze the assets of the Afghan people and confiscated their money. They put pressure on all countries of the world in order not to recognize the new government politically. Now, the Taliban, which has undertaken the administration as a separate challenge and responsibility, has to improve the situation of the people, who have been impoverished and are struggling with hunger in the midst of civil and foreign wars for many years. They are in a multi-faceted siege and war that makes it difficult for them to solve the problems of their people. We say it's not just their issue. All Muslims, especially Islamic movements, should help them as much as they can and to the extent of their strength. Muslim countries should also share with them their experiences and should not spare their assistance in the economic, political, and military fields. Country leaders should do this with a sense of Islamic responsibility. Our Afghan brothers have attained their freedom by fighting with their lives, blood, and property. It is not possible to maintain their freedom on their own. Just as the enemies (= infidels) consider the victory of the Taliban as not only a victory for them but also as a hope for all Islamic movements and generations, they will see the Taliban’s failure as the failure of all Ummah. For this reason, we have an obligation to support our brothers like Afghans who have been oppressed all but have preserved their dignity and to preserve the energy created by this victory. We remind you again; Here, the greatest duty falls to the Islamic jamaats, scholars, and Muslim countries leaders. We pray that Allah will give this awareness to all Muslim leaders. (ILKHA)