Al-Isra 54: Your Lord is the One Who knows you best. Allah will show mercy to those among you who desire. And when you desire, Allah will punish you. We have not sent you as a guardian over them.

We have come to verse 54 of Surah Al-Isra. Verse 54 of Surah Al-Isra is a verse that is translated wrongly. Let us first read you the wrong version here.

Well, let's read it from the text we wrote here.

54.

The verse, verse 54, has been written wrongly: Your Lord knows you best. Correct. If He wills, He has mercy on you. This part is wrong. If He wills, He has mercy on you, it says. Look, listen. Now there is a discrimination among His servants. If He wills, He punishes you. (?) Why should I worship? It's left to Allah's will.

We did not send you as a guardian over them, it says. Correct. But the verse is like this. The correct version is like this. Our Lord knows you best. He has mercy on whoever of you wills it. On whoever wills it. Should you say: my Lord, forgive me, pardon me, I have no other door to go to but You. You created us lacking, in helplessness. You created us fallible. Had You created a servant who (?) commits no errors, in Your verse You would destroy us and create servants who err. And we, from our reason, our sound reason, erred knowingly or unknowingly. When one says "Our Lord, forgive us", did I myself ask Allah for my forgiveness?

Or did Allah will to forgive me? Do not ascribe attributes to Allah over His servants. Allah approaches His servants equally. Whoever (?) from Allah, Allah forgives him. Because there is no other door to go to but Allah. In that case, Allah's willing is not over people. Man himself asks it of Allah.

Yes. Don't we wish? What do we say? La ilahe illallah Muhammedün Resulullah; we wish it, we became Muslims, didn't we? Did Allah will "you become Muslim"? If Allah willed my becoming Muslim, if He willed it so, then would Allah Almighty, who created the worlds and by His mercy gives life to the universe, create the disbelievers, this cruelty, to burn them in Hell? So every person, by his own wish and desire, the covenant he gave to Allah Almighty, you (?); that's how it really is. So: your Lord knows you best, it says. Look: He knows you best. If He knows us best, that is, He can see according to the covenant we gave.

Because it was He who gave us those characters. Ever since we were in the realm of souls, He also knows what we will do until the Last Day. What does it say? There is no living being, no living being that will come until the Last Day, of which We do not know what it will not do, it says. Yes, He has mercy on whoever of you wills it; when you will it, when you will it, He punishes you. Now a man says: would I wish for Hell? Well now, you don't wish for Hell, but Allah Almighty tells you to pray, he doesn't; to fast, he doesn't; well, He tells you to become Muslim, he doesn't, you don't; don't drink, and you drink; don't gamble, and you gamble; don't commit adultery, and you do. Now this wishing, Allah Almighty, in His justice: did you wish it, or (?) Allah over you?

Yes. Every state has a law. Don't they punish acts against the laws? Since Allah Almighty is the one who created us, since there is no other god, since He is our owner, since He has poured so many blessings before us, since He created us the noblest of creatures, did He send us into the world to roam aimlessly?

Of course He will ask something of us too. In return for so many blessings He gave, (?). (?) Know Me, He says. Know Me. Yes. Is it too heavy for your nafs? You eat and drink for pleasure. You take the world for pleasure. You satisfy yourself very well with your lustful feelings. In the world you go about with mansions, yachts and cars. Saying "Allah" weighs on you. Just look at you.

(?) it offends you. Well here, did you now wish for the punishment, or did Allah wish this punishment upon you? You commit a crime. You come before the judge. And the judge gives you a sentence. Did the judge give you this sentence? Or did you deserve the punishment for the crime you wanted? It takes a head to grasp these things. It takes reason. Yes.

Allah Almighty knows best those He created, because Allah created people; while they were souls He made a covenant with them; whoever obeyed Allah, that person He programmed in proportion to his intention and wish; and whoever, seized by pride and arrogance toward Allah, denied Allah, him too He programmed in proportion to his intention and wish. For this reason Allah, the Creator, of course knows best those He created. who other than Allah; whoever asks Allah for guidance, Allah makes the paths of guidance easy for him; and whoever asks Allah for torment, those people too are left subject to Allah's torment. Partial free will is in people's hands; whatever people wish from Allah, Allah lets people attain their wishes. In the translations of many verses they say: Allah torments whom He wills and guides whom He wills.

In this verse too they have rendered it as: if He wills He has mercy on you, if He wills He punishes you. The translations of the verses are all mirrors of one another; copying from one another they have ascribed attributes to Allah. Allah is free of deficient attributes. He removed His will from over people. Did He maintain His own will, His rule, His rule over people? Then wouldn't attributes be ascribed to Allah? Why did He send the prophets and the books? If He Himself passes judgment over me, why send me a prophet? Why send a book, if He did it this way? What nonsense. The nonsense words of a person who says I'm a scholar, I'm enlightened.

Yes. And after that the Diyanet does its Diyanet work with these books. That is, at the head of the religion of Islam, it tries to steer Islam. What are you steering with? Steer yourself first. First steer yourself. Don't contradict yourself with your own words.

Yes. By the acts a person brings about by his own will, people incur reward or sin. So Allah does not torment whom He wills and have mercy on whom He wills. Whoever asks Allah for guidance, Allah grants him guidance. And whoever acts outside Allah's command, Him He punishes too. Everyone is responsible for what he does. No one can blame Allah. Yes. In that case, if you say Allah guides whom He wills, aren't you blaming Allah? Aren't you making Him discriminate among His other servants? And on top of that you write this Quran because you claim to know Arabic. Or you have it written. And if you don't have it written, he believes it.

You judge by this. Then, with the title of (?), you occupy those positions. At least be worthy of the position. Strive to change this, strive. Make an effort. To the one who turns to the truth, (?) stark naked you laid it out in the open. Stark naked. No one speaks the truth. They don't speak what is right. And to those who say "I'm a hodja" they tell superstitions. Superstitions. Because, on these superstitions, rendered so as to ascribe attributes to Allah, this word of the Quran: the people who do scholarship on it or judge by it, what will come out of their talk? How much direction will these give a person amid these superstitions?

Think: these people only satisfy their own nafs.

When you speak the truth, they struggle with falsehood to throw superstition over the truth.

Instead of submitting, instead of yielding to the truth, they quarrel with people. In that case, tomorrow, tomorrow at the Last Day, you and I, or let me put it this way, you all and I, in the presence of our Lord will settle accounts. I convey the command of the truth. I speak the truth. Believing or not believing (?). Nor am I going to change anyone's destiny.

Nor am I going to force anyone. Everyone lives the covenant of the destiny he gave.

My responsibility is to explain to you, to tell you. Responsibility beyond that rests on your own two shoulders.

Yes.

Allah is free of deficient attributes. If Allah punishes whom He wills, where did people's partial free will go? Allah removed His will from over people. He maintained His own will, the rule of His will, over people. Then wouldn't attributes be ascribed to Allah? Why were the prophets and books sent? By the acts a person brings about by his own will, people incur reward or sin. So Allah does not torment whom He wills and have mercy on whom He wills. Whoever asks Allah for guidance, Allah grants him guidance. And whoever acts outside Allah's command, Him He punishes too. Everyone is responsible for what he does.

No one can blame Allah.

As they wrongly render the verses in translation, as they wrongly render the verses in translation, if Allah had tormented whom He willed, and the person suffering the torment said to Allah Almighty: my Allah, what is my fault? Did I commit (?) a sin? You left me subject to torment; if he said this, what answer would Allah Almighty give this servant? Would He say: I'm punishing you because I felt like it? What about Allah's attribute e leysallâhu bi ahkemi'l-hâkimîn? In this verse too, the renderings were made relatively close to the meaning of the verse. In the tafsir we are working on the explanation.

If you wish, He has mercy on you. If you wish, He punishes you: it should be rendered this way; in return for people's wishes from Allah Almighty, Allah Almighty writes down for people events of reward or sin. Allah Almighty has shown people their paths. There is no third path besides the first; besides the two paths there is no third path. One of these two paths is the path upon the straight path that leads to Allah. Besides this single path there is no other path leading to Allah. One of these two paths is the path of the straight way. Of people who have submitted to Allah's commands and prohibitions and believed in Allah and the hereafter, it is the path to Paradise.

The second path is the opposite of this. They do not believe in Allah and the hereafter, and do not carry out Allah's commands. This path too is one that leads to Hell. Whichever path a person chooses by his own will, he goes that way. Did Allah tell the person going to the bad: go to the bad? Or did Allah Almighty tell the person going to the good: I'll put you into Hell and punish you? Addressing people: if you do bad deeds, I will punish you. If you carry out My commands, I will reward you. Your rewards yes are not lost in His sight, He says. So every person will surely see the return of what he wished for.

That He will treat with mercy those who want to win Allah's good pleasure with good intention, and that those who with bad intention do not believe in Allah and the hereafter, and outside Allah's command (?) people, He will punish; this He declares. Man himself asks Allah for this good and this punishment. Because partial free will is in man's own hands. Yes.

We seem to have reversed this part. Yes. Allah did not send the Beloved of the Almighty, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), as a guardian over people. If the Prophet (peace be upon him) had been a guardian over people, then if even a single person on earth had not entered Islam and had sinned, he would be responsible for it. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is charged with making Allah's commands known to people. It is the same with all the prophets; they were sent according to fitra. Their task is to make Allah's commands known to people and to invite people to Allah. For this reason the Prophet (peace be upon him) too showed people the truth, invited them to Allah, and by Allah's leave explained the religion of Islam to people. How people live after that is their own concern.

By doing or not doing Allah's commands and prohibitions, every person, within his own will, has become responsible before Allah Almighty.