Al-Isra 10: And for those who don’t believe in the hereafter, We have prepared for them a severe punishment.

We have come to Surah Al-Isra, verse 10. As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, We have prepared a painful punishment for them, it says. As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, the non-Muslims – those who pass into the Hereafter as non-Muslims, all of them, as people of eternal Hell, into the Hereafter they pass. I am not saying all non-Muslims.

Pay attention to my words. I am saying those who pass into the Hereafter as non-Muslims. Today, among non-Muslims there are also people who will become Muslim. They are excepted. That is why, for those who as non-Muslims in the Hereafter have passed on, Hell has been created for them and will surround them on all sides. In an eternal, endless life without death, according to the verse our Lord revealed, there they neither die nor live, it says. What does this mean? Die? There is no death, so that they (?). There is no death for souls. If souls were mortal, Allah Almighty's own Being would also be mortal.

He proves this to us with the tiny part He has given. That is, there they neither die nor live. In the Hereafter people are eternal, immortal. Those who cannot understand the meaning of this, those small minds, call them followers of wahdat al-wujud. Wahdat al-wujud is one thing, immortality is another. If Allah Almighty gave a part of His Being, people subsist through His Being. Allah is the Creator; people, however much a part (?) from Allah Almighty they may be, are created beings. No being is equal to Allah Almighty, and when it is called wahdat al-wujud – because from His Being He gave a part, and because people too subsist through Allah, an eternal, endless life awaits us in the Hereafter.

Soul, nafs and spirit are one. Bodies are separate. People who cannot grasp this raise doubts in their minds and (?), and some go to wahdat al-wujud, others fall prey to various feelings. I repeat. Soul, nafs and spirit are one. Bodies are separate. Yunus Emre says so too. I wrapped myself in flesh and bone, I appeared as Yunus, he says. Death is upon bodies. There is no death for souls. What does the verse say? Every soul shall taste death. Look, it does not say every soul shall die. Now I am drinking tea here, sipping it. Look, I tasted this. What was it? Let's say it was death. I tasted it. Let me try: I tasted it. Who died?

My body went. The body died. As for the soul, as we all know, in the grave the noble angels Munkar and Nakir come and take it away. If there were death, it too would die, it would perish, I mean. Just as the body perishes in the earth, in the grave. So if people knew these subtleties here, these verses, well, they would not fall into such ulterior ideas and thoughts. When people die, the body dies, and the nafs tastes this death. The soul, one with the nafs and spirit, rises straight to the realm of Barzakh it first came from, and until the Last Day there it stays. There, as Abdulqadir Gilani said, in its own cell the soul is constantly in a state of dance.

Enelillahi'l-hak, it says. That is, entelillahi'l-hak. That is, it says Allah is the Truth. It constantly remembers Him, saying Allah is the Truth, he says. Its saying Allah is the Truth comes from its seeing Allah (?) at the address Elestü bi rabbiküm, he says. Yes. Allah (?), of course. So, as for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, for them a painful punishment We have prepared, it says. If people, within a life of a few hours in this world, give their hearts to this world and are carried away, the eternal, endless Hereafter they bring to ruin. If our Lord says in His verse that a thousand years of this world are like one day of the Hereafter, then a person who will carry on his life in an endless world, if by this passing world he is carried away with the feelings of the nafs and prejudices, then he proves what kind of person he is.

Did you think you would die without proving what kind of person you are, according to the verse? The life here naturally proves him, and in the Hereafter before Allah Almighty, to the court (?). No one will be wronged today, everyone gets the return of what his two hands earned – according to this verse, before the one Allah Almighty calls the Judge of judges, they will give account and go to the place they deserve. Therefore we say: O man, regard the world and your life in this world as a boon. Know Allah as Allah. That there is no god but Him. That the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His servant and Messenger, that all prophets are true, that all books are gathered in the Quran, and that the books of the People of the Book, four books with the Quran, are true – knowing this, after bearing witness to Allah you find life by living Islam.

In the Hereafter one finds the Truth. You attain our Lord's mercy. Otherwise, the place we will go is a place of punishment and a home of torment – do not forget that. Make your decision in this world accordingly, and with the decision you have made do not forget that you will be judged in the Hereafter. Yes. In verse 10 of Surah Al-Isra: As for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, for them We have prepared a (?) punishment, it says. Those who in worldly life do not believe in Allah and the Hereafter, who toward Allah's creatures (?) feel, who love worldly wealth more than their lives, people who forget Allah, who, in the face of Allah's blessings, without a thought eat and drink what Allah gives, and the one who gives these blessings do not want to remember and are not grateful – these are ungrateful people.

Those who associate partners with Allah, people in hidden shirk, whose ears are closed to the word of truth, whose eyes are blind to the truth, and whose hearts toward Allah are (?) sealed – people of whom Allah Almighty: Hatemallahu alâ kulûbihim ve alâ sem'ihim ve alâ ebsârihim gışâvetün ve lehüm azâbün azîm. Their eyes, it says, are veiled, their ears (?), it says, (?), for them there is a painful punishment, it says. In the Hereafter, in Hell, of which He says what an evil destination it is, a painful punishment has been prepared for them. It is painful; the gates of Hell are closed, the person's hope of getting out of Hell is cut off.

For people waiting in hope of getting out of Hell, when the gates of Hell close in their faces, the pain and anguish they feel will be even more bitter than the pain and anguish they will endure. It is painful too: those who saw themselves as great in worldly life, who fell into pride and arrogance, people who saw themselves as far superior – when the people they did not value, whom they looked at with arrogance, whom they did not treat as human, they see reaching salvation and entering the Gardens, before them they will be humbled and, in rage, be seized by a painful agony. In addition, a painful punishment will touch them.

May Allah Almighty give us all good understanding and make us servants to Allah and the community of His Beloved.