Ibrahim 15: They (the Prophets) desired victory (and Allah granted it for them). And all obstinate oppressors have suffered a loss.

It is nothing like their talk.

Surah Ibrahim, verse 15. The prophets asked for victory. And Allah gave it. And every stubborn tyrant came to ruin.

In another sense, when the prophets asked for victory, none of them compromised on Allah. They carried out Allah's commands to the letter. By telling Allah's servants the revelation from Allah exactly as it is, these are, in Allah's sight, the victorious ones. The victorious. In Surah Al-Fath too: Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, We will give you, it says, a victory soon, it says. This victory is in fact worldly too; the true meaning is otherworldly.

Every person stays in this world for a short time, in a place of means and provision, until he proves what kind of person he is, within life. A short time. What is this? A thousand years of the world are like one day of the hereafter. Sixty, seventy years, a person's life here is like one, one and a half hours. And so, compared with the hereafter, it is a place of brief provision. In that case, the true victory, in the hereafter, is the victory of the person who did not go against his Lord's command and, within His will, won His paradise — that person's victory. That is what victory is. Struggling with your nafs, not by what your nafs says but by your Lord's verses, to which your reason points as the truth, judging by them, being a servant to your Lord and of the ummah of His Beloved — the victory such a person has won in Allah's sight.

That is victory. Yes. And the prophets too are within this victory. Allah — against people who do not believe in Allah and the hereafter and recklessly ask for Allah's punishment, the prophets plead with Allah Almighty: O my Allah, separate us from this people. Upon their saying so, since Allah Almighty accepts His prophets' prayers, He destroyed these stubborn, tyrannical peoples. And when Allah Almighty is going to send a calamity on a people, that is, destruction, He takes those He loves out of it. For example, when He was going to destroy the people of Salih, He took Salih and those who followed him out of their midst.

When He was going to destroy the people of Lot (peace be upon him), Lot and his family, all except one old woman — she was one of those who followed them. He saved them and destroyed the others. It was likewise with Noah (peace be upon him). He saved those who followed him and destroyed the others. Yes.

The prophets asked for victory. The meaning here: the prophets are Allah's messengers. They are people who know Allah Almighty with certainty, who see His existence as if seeing it outwardly, who believe — such people. In that case, the denial of Allah Almighty by unbelievers and idolaters and their mocking of Allah weigh heavily on the prophets. They cannot stomach falsehood prevailing over truth. For this reason they ask Allah for victory. That is, the supremacy of truth, Allah Almighty being the Truth, the spreading of His religion — this they want. The wishes of the prophets, who long for Allah to be remembered, through the destruction of the liars, as a lesson for the people who come after — these wishes, in Allah's sight, are victory.

So: Allah Almighty fulfils these wishes of His prophets, and the stubborn tyrants, the unbelievers and idolaters, those who deny Allah, the people who do not believe in the hereafter, are, by their destruction, left subject to punishment in this world. And in the hereafter too, with a (?) punishment, He gives His prophets (?). He makes His religion lasting; the prophets, and the rightness of those who follow the prophets, as long as the world stands, being told as examples to the people to come until the Day of Judgment, are a source of lessons for those who believe. Yes.