Ali 'Imran 198: But for those who abstain from disobeying their Lord, there is the reward of the Paradise, below which rivers flow and in which they will dwell eternally. For good people; (bounties) from Allah is much better.

But, He says, for those who guard against disobeying their Lord, there are, as a gift from Allah, gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will remain forever. What is with Allah is better for the righteous. For the righteous. Yes. Yes. But for those who guard against disobeying their Lord, as a gift from Allah, there are hells beneath which rivers flow, where they will remain forever. There are gardens. Gardens. There are hells too, of course. There are eternal hells too. But not with rivers flowing beneath — a fiery hell. Yes. What is with Allah is better for the righteous. Why better? Because the good deeds they did were carried over to the hereafter.

Who? According to the verse: they buy paradise with their wealth and their lives. They recognized their Lord, knew Him, and realized that the life of the world is temporary. With their wealth, those generous ones bought paradise. Allah is the One who creates wealth. Allah is also the One who creates man. When the person who earns wealth and holds it in his care as a trust earns that trust and (?) it to Allah, Allah does not accept (?) as (?). He sold it to Me, He says. He sold it. And I sold him My paradise, He says. And I granted him My paradise. Yes. How beautifully Allah Almighty speaks to people.

How beautifully.

Those who guard against disobeying Allah Almighty,

those who continue in obedience and devotion to Allah, those (?) with piety, who mind halal and haram — for them, as a gift from Allah, there are gardens beneath which rivers flow. They will remain in these gardens forever. You know, people — some of them — believe in words that people made up and wrote.

Forever, He says, forever. Here He says forever, but, they say, according to that other verse it does not mean forever.

They will burn to ashes, and finally one day they too, or else, will come out of Hell and attain paradise, they say.

Well, what is eternal Hell? What is eternal paradise? When He says eternal Hell — when those people come out of that eternal Hell and come to paradise, would eternal Hell have any purpose of creation left? No. Then Allah would have created something pointless. Yet Allah is free of any deficient attribute. Therefore those who, with word games, want to do away with the words 'eternal', who, according to their own minds, interpret Allah's word, are people who wrong their own selves.

Yes. What is with Allah is better for the righteous. Those who know Allah Almighty with certainty and believe.

When we say 'those who know with certainty' here, I can repeat for you the example I gave earlier. Say to a 6-7-year-old child: come on, hit here with your fist. Hit with all your strength. He says: you hit with all your strength. And he does hit with all his strength, of course. 8-10 kilos. A 20-30-year-old person hits too. With all his strength, 80-100 kilos. A perfected person hits too. 150-200 kilos. All of them hit with full strength. All of them say: we hit with full strength. With full strength. But that full strength is in the perfected one. Perfected. So here, those who know with certainty are the perfected ones.

The believers. Those at peace. O soul at peace! Your Lord pleased with you, and you with your Lord. Enter among My servants, well-pleased. The people to whom He says: enter My paradise. We mean them. Allah Almighty means them too. What does He say? Knowing that worldly blessings are temporary, they take only as much as they need. Their needs. The rest they give in charity for Allah's servants.

Yes.

Knowing that worldly blessings are temporary, they take only as much as they need. The rest they give in charity for Allah's servants. These good people, besides the blessings of this world, ask Allah Almighty for the blessings of the hereafter.

He knows that the blessings of the world will one day end, but that the blessing of the hereafter is everlasting. Without nurturing love for the world's blessings, without placing any love beside the love of Allah in his heart, he benefits from the world's blessings as much as is needed, and with the love of Allah and His Messenger he spends his life.

They become the people to whom, in the verse, He says: help the religion of Allah.

Yes.

Without stepping outside Allah's command, with an eye on the blessings with Allah, they move on to the hereafter. So everyone, what kind of person he is in this world, thus proves either by his cruelty or by the compassion and mercy in his heart, and finally, when his life is complete, moves on to the hereafter.

Those who behave like this and who obey Allah in this way, winning their test in this world, attain Allah's mercy. Blessed are those who live like this, who do good to those around them and to themselves, who are compassionate and merciful toward Allah's creatures, who seek Allah's pleasure in everything they do — blessed are they. Not those who, like a clogmaker's adze, always cut toward themselves, not those who, without caring for halal or haram, as if they would never die, amass the world. In the end, that one will die too, and the other too — every soul shall taste death, and to Me is your return, says Allah Almighty.

In this case, the person has traded the hereafter for his world. He has attained that place of eternal punishment. And the other has prepared the wealth of the hereafter. Even if he was ground between two millstones in the world, he paid no heed to this temporary cruelty and torment of the world. A person who, to win Allah's pleasure, bowed to his Lord in the helplessness of his nafs. Blessed are such people.