While passing through Eminönü in the evening, I encountered a flood of people stretching towards the shore. It was cold and it was drizzling, and people were pushing each other forward. Many times, I have come across people waiting in single lines in the discount aisles of markets, at the doors of charity organizations, in front of bread kiosks. Therefore, wherever I saw a crowd, I would say the fate of the urban person. But there was a mixture of hope and fear in the eyes of the people here, so I stood where I was and asked the reason for this haste. A young girl in her 20s turned her head and said, "Sister, you know what the price of bread, water and oil is, we decided to buy a lottery ticket in the hope of getting it". I was shocked, I didn't know what to say, I froze where I was. Then I gathered all my courage and said, "The lottery is like gambling and God forbid it." This statement aroused great anger in the people who had been waiting for a long time, and movements began to pour from right to left. People kept shouting, raising their hands in the air, even though I didn't answer. In such cases, if you do not feel any discomfort in your conscience and you are relieved, you do not pay much attention to the spoken word, but if there is a discomfort in your conscience, what you feel will make you bleed and you will miss the reaction. People were waiting saying that maybe luck will hit us too, but obviously their conscience was not very clear.
As I was trying to cross the street to get away from the scene, a young man shouted after me:
"Sister, did you see the people who grap rightful share of people, but did you get stuck with the little concessions we made, we wouldn't have come and waited under the rain if we didn't need it."
Sometimes you feel so far away from your interlocutor that you realize that no matter what you do, you cannot make your voice heard, and you prefer to remain silent. You cannot explain the gravity of the situation to someone who is unaware that faith is also surrender. You cannot explain to this person that there will be no big or small haram, that a drop of dirt can pollute an entire ocean.
As I was walking from Eminönü towards my house, I thought about the surrender and the radical transformation of the people of Mecca, who made drinking, gambling and entertainment a lifestyle, when the verse was revealed. You may remember that the Arab society was fond of alcohol, games of chance, and entertainment, and when they got together, they tended to these games, which are a kind of gambling, and tried to gain superiority with the profits they obtained. Therefore, our Lord has mentioned and prohibited games of chance together with alcohol in his verse. In the society of ignorance, gambling provided people with some material resources such as eating and drinking, and was pushing them to laziness and to gain easy way. In games of chance, losers harbored anger towards others, and this turned into a rivalry, pushing hearts apart.
"O believers! Intoxicants, gambling, idols, and drawing lots for decisions1 are all evil of Satan’s handiwork. So shun them so you may be successful. Satan’s plan is to stir up hostility and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling and to prevent you from remembering Allah and praying. Will you not then abstain?" (Maide, 90, 91) these two verse were revealed and the Muslims surrendered as soon as they heard the verses, threw their drinks on the street, and put an end to the games of chance. Believing required this, believing was a value that turned into action and life. Today, games of chance, which are promoted under the name of toto, lotto, horse racing and lottery tickets, are unfortunately seen as a source of income and can be accepted.
The global capitalist system does not only occupy the material resources of the societies it colonized, but also exposes it to cultural transformation and assimilates it by using communication tools. People lose their ability to ask questions and become dull, prone to exploitation. This situation drags them into internal conflict and identity confusion.
Time flies, and as we enter a new year, we have to look for ways to make our day better by accounting for how we spent our lives, what we did or did not do.