Adnan Oktar A9 TV; May 2nd, 2015

With radicalism, they have stigmatized Islam throughout the whole world. They want to extinguish the sun of Islam. Hanging people, chopping the up, beating and degrading women, calling them half-people, demanding no music, no pictures, no art, no goodness, no beauty, no affection, no nothing. Are you all mad? It is as if they have a longing for Hell. There is no such thing in Islam.

Mahdi's facilitating and easing of religion means his removing unlawful acts that are not defined by the Qur'an. For instance, is music unlawful? No: There is no such verse in the Qur'an. He will explain to those who claim that music is unlawful that it is lawful.

Satan complicates religion and people thus keep aloof from religion. They transformed Islam into the most terrifying religion in the world right now. They misrepresent it as a system that kills all life, that removes all aesthetics, all the beautiful aspects of life, as a system that demands terror, that demands bloodshed and that ruins life. The fact is however, Almighty God says, " God desires ease for you; He does not desire difficulty for you." And He says " God has selected you and not placed any constraint upon you in the religion —as in the religion of your forefather Abraham."

Radicals consider the commands of God in the Book He sent as insufficient. For instance, salat (prayers) is explained in the Qur'an yet they see it as insufficient and try to add things to it. Fasting for instance; they look at the Qur'an and see it as insufficient. They try to add things to it. They try to add things to every other religious act. But if there is something that is in conflict with their own interests, then they try to subtract things from those commands. They say, "This verse has been nullified, the command of this verse has been lifted".

People saw that they can be religious in their hearts and souls. They have seen that they can listen to music; they have seen that women can wander around without covering their heads yet be religious and perform their prayers at the same time. Therefore, religion has become widespread covertly in Turkey and found a great foundation everywhere.

Our Prophet (saas) learned what is unlawful from the Qur'an. There is no unlawful or lawful apart from what is in the Qur'an. The Companions asked our mother Hazrat Aisha (ra) "What is the sunnah of Rasulullah?" And she replied "the Qur'an." So do not invent things. Lawful and unlawful acts are only defined by the Qur'an.

The world has no aspect to enjoy things. That is because Heaven is the place to enjoy. Why should people settle for the inadequate pleasures of this world? They carry a ton of wood on their shoulders and then say, "Let us go have fun." That ton of wood on their shoulders will be lifted in the Heaven. You can then have fun. There are various hardships all around this world.

God says that, "This world is not the place for play and idle sport. The Heaven is the place for play and idle sport. This world is a place for trial." That is why if you fasten yourself to this world, you would be stuck with it, says God. But if you aim for the Hereafter, if you aim My approval, I will make you happy for all eternity, you will have fun and laugh. Those who fasten themselves to this world would merely grovel, let me say that much. They would merely wallow and flounder. Nothing else would ever happen.

The things demanded by the Qur'an are only a few: Performing prayers is explained very briefly in the Qur'an, fasting is explained very briefly and giving alms is explained very briefly. God commands us to be merciful, compassionate, to avoid telling lies, to be true. He commands us to have good intentions and to love one another, to love God a lot; to be of help to one another and to avoid worldly ambitions for goods because everything belongs to God. The commands in the Qur'an are very few. The rest is all about the foulness of the unbelievers, the impertinent behavior of the unbelievers, of the people of heresy and the responses given to them.

Competition is something our Prophet (saas) sees as acceptable; it is something religion considers as acceptable. It is also seen in Heaven. Muslims will have fun racing each other. They will have motor races, boat races to have fun, or have footraces or horse races.

Radicals prohibit everything beautiful. They preach everything that is atrocious, everything that is difficult. Their encouragement about crying is unbelievable. God refers to it as a characteristic of unbelievers. "They will cry a lot and you will laugh," God says to Muslims. And they turn everything around and tell Muslims "Do not laugh, cry a lot!" How could one's mind and soul endure this? Go do sports, eat, drink, laugh, perform your religious observances, beautify everywhere. Let the arts prevail everywhere.

Religion is a system that gathers all the beauties of the world inside. There is joy in religion, there is merriness, there is fun, there is music in religion. Ladies can wander around comfortably, they can wear revealing clothes if they like and cover their heads if they like; no one interferes them. They can laugh as they like, they can have tattoos if they like. Religion would not interfere with such things. Religion commands us to have a good conscience and be conscientious, to be honest, to be reasonable, to be meticulous about what is lawful and what is not. Religion is the other name of joy.

Heaven is immaculately clean. There are paintings in Heaven, there is music, there is beauty. All the women are very well kept and well-groomed in Heaven. Turn this world you are living in into Heaven on Earth; why do you have to turn it into hell? God wants us to turn this world into Heaven with our faith, with our intelligence, with our efforts.

It is alright to listen to music, it is alright to have fun and to laugh. Anything to the contrary would disrupt human nature; it would destabilize one's balance. May God forbid, you would make yourself fall ill if you disrupt your nature. Be joyous, be happy, have fun, laugh and be playful. That is how God created you. Otherwise, you turn in on yourself, you become ill, your health would then be disrupted, you would then lose your strength to think. It also makes it impossible for you to live by Islam.

If you regard arts as unsavory, if you despise music, painting, sculpture and architecture, if you attempt to run away from a house with paintings, if you say "dogs are evil, you should chase off them when you see them," such a country would never advance. The reason why Europe advanced is because they are open to arts and science.

Music is lawful by religion, paintings are lawful, having fun is lawful, sculpture is lawful. I mean, lawful things are innumerable. Things that are forbidden by religion are concisely defined in the Qur'an and they are very few. God says, 'I have deemed everything other than those lawful for you.' How do you come up with all those forbidden acts on your own?

The government should protect and watch over the rights of women, freedom, democracy, music, arts and everything that is beautiful. The government should look out for quality and aesthetics and state that "these are the characteristics of the Turkish Nation."

No one should be using the language of conflict. The human soul is inclined both towards anger and towards love; the human soul is inclined both towards laughing and towards crying. Laughing should preferred every single time. Love should be preferred instead of hatred every single time.

Laughing, having fun is a beautiful blessing. All the prophets were very cheerful.

A Muslim should hold on to God to death. He should accept being martyred, becoming a veteran, to be imprisoned, to be put into an asylum. He should be able to be thankful to God when those things happen. Then God opens his path to the utmost.

Getting spoiled, running riot and showing off is one within the other. They are showing off and putting on an act for wretched people. You are a wretched being and so are those you put on a show for. You will all die one day, so pull yourself together. At the end of the day, you are made up of flesh and bones. What if you put on a dress? What if you have a state -of -the -art computer? What if you have a nice phone? You will die because you are made up of flesh and bone; they will bury you in your grave and your body will decompose. Why do you get spoiled and run riot then? Why do you show off?

Women are very much affected by intellect and faith. That is what a woman looks for in a man and a man looks for that in a woman as well. This is not something about flesh and bones; there are very beautiful women but you cannot feel love for them if they are dishonorable. You cannot love them if they are unkind. You cannot love them if they are ungracious. You cannot love them if they are perfidious, egotistic, selfish. You cannot love them if they are unable to think freely and sincerely.

Youth should be taught about Islam, Christianity and Judaism comprehensively as a part of general culture. Religion is the main philosophy ruling the world we are living in.

What does Almighty God say for Islam? He says, "It is easy as the religion of the Prophet Abraham." He says, "God desires ease for you; He does not desire difficulty for you." Mahdi (pbuh) will ease religion. What kind of easiness? An unprecedented easiness. Religion will become lighter, the chains will be removed. A very easy religion would be put forth. What religion will that be? The one we see in the Qur'an.

The awaited Mahdi (pbuh) will revive Islam and bring life to it by easing it. He will ease religion and remove the chains of radicalism from the shoulders of the people.