Al-Isra 21: See how some people are superior to others. Verily, the hereafter is greater in terms of degrees and superiority.

Verse 21 of Surah Al-Isra is a verse that has been wrongly interpreted. Yes, let's see how it was wrongly interpreted, and what the right meaning is.

Surah Al-Isra, verse 21: "Look," it says, "how We have made some people superior to others," it says.

Allah, Allah! Allah the Creator,

is He not discriminating among His servants here? He sees. "Look how We have made some people superior to others"? Now, they ask the Prophet (peace be upon him): "Who is called unjust?" "A father who discriminates among his children is also unjust," he says. So, if a father discriminates among his children, does Allah discriminate among His servants?

I told them where it mattered, didn't I: you have made it worse than the Gospel. To the Diyanet, I told the Diyanet: you have made this interpretation worse than the Gospel. Yes. Have they or haven't they now?

And of all the translations written, however many have been written, they are all copies of one another.

Yes. "Certainly the Hereafter is greater in degrees and differences of superiority," it says. And here, leaving people to their own will, it then says: certainly the Hereafter is higher in degrees. As if to say: so strive. If You made some superior to others, what more do You want from me?

What is the right meaning? "Look how some people are superior to others."

It does not say, "We created some people superior to others." "Look how some people are superior to others." By what? By their eagerness toward Allah Almighty. By what? By their own will. As a result of the covenant they gave to Allah Almighty. By their own characters. By the love and affection they feel, of their own will, for their Lord. Some are superior to others. Nefs-i emmare, nefs-i levvame, nefs-i mülhime, nefs-i mutmainne, nefs-i radiye, nefs-i marziye, nefs-i safiye. All of them are Muslims. Some have no prayer, no supplication, no fasting, no ablution, all the (?), all of it is in this one. Nefs-i emmare. Muslim.

His covenant is like that. He will live his own life by his own will. Nefs-i levvame: in his prayer, in his supplication. If he turns to piety, nefs-i mülhime. The gate of wonders. If he turns with more piety and does not look at that, nefs-i mutmainne. The gate of divine manifestations. He attains the quality of a believer. If he rises higher, ilme'l-yakîn. He enters nefs-i radiye. If he rises higher, nefs-i marziye, which comes once every 100 years, kutbu'l-azam. If he rises a little higher, there emerges the one who comes once every 200 years and removes falsehoods from the religion, the kutbu'l- aktab.

Yes.

May Allah reform them. No one can fit Allah into their tiny mind. Could you fit Him? I can't either, but I do not ascribe attributes to Allah (?). Don't ascribe attributes. Don't ascribe attributes to Allah Almighty. "Look how some people are superior to others." Certainly the Hereafter is greater in degrees and differences of superiority. Indeed, there is the Garden of Firdaws, the Garden of Adn, the Gardens of Naim. Isn't that so? And among the gardens there is one garden that no garden (?). Makam-ı Mahmud, given to the Prophet; people cannot even imagine it, it says. The 8th garden. Yes.

The superiority of one person over another lies in the sight of Allah. Where? In the address Elestü bi-Rabbiküm, when Allah Almighty said: I am your Lord, in people's covenant with Allah Almighty, our Lord knows how close each is to His Being, and accordingly characters and grades them, and gives the characters accordingly. The superiority meant here is between people who obey Allah's commands and believe in Allah and the Hereafter and people who do not obey Allah and do not believe in the Hereafter. Surely people who obey Allah are, in Allah's sight, superior to those who do not obey. Besides these, the efforts for Allah of people honored with Islam, and their striving to win Allah's pleasure, also vary by degrees in Allah's sight.

These works of theirs are greater in the Hereafter in terms of differences of superiority.

We have written here that people have seven states of the nafs. Someone has become Muslim. He is at the first step of his nafs. His rank in Allah's sight is lower than that of one at the second step of the nafs.

At the third step of the nafs, the rank in Allah's sight is higher than at the second step. And the state of a Muslim at the fourth step of the nafs, compared with others' first, second and third steps, is at a higher rank. Their places in Allah's sight and the gardens they will enter are all different. So in the world of the Hereafter, the differences of superiority among people by rank in Allah's sight are greater. For example, the righteous servants will enter the Garden of Adn. In this Garden of Adn, it says, with rivers flowing from beneath, gardens, mountains, orchards, palaces, pavilions.

They don't resemble palaces in this world.

How do you know, Hodja? I saw Allah. My Lord makes me speak anyway by opening my spiritual unveiling. If it weren't so, these things couldn't be written.

Such a palace or a building, a person may perhaps build something like it in this world, this world is the likeness of the Hereafter anyway, but cannot build the same. For example, white, white. Here too there is white, but the white of the Hereafter is something else entirely. If you saw it, its whiteness would dazzle your eyes.

That's why it says this world is the shadow of the Hereafter: as if a cloud had been drawn over it and this were like its shadow.

Their places and ranks in Allah's sight, and the gardens too, are all different. So in the world of the Hereafter, the differences of superiority among people by rank in Allah's sight are greater. The rewards that people, for their faith in and obedience to Allah in this world, receive in the world of the Hereafter are certainly different from the rewards given in return in this world and superior. Compared with the reward you get in this world, in the Hereafter it is superior. For example, you achieved a success in this world. They brought it to you, they gave you a certificate. Mashallah. You got your certificate.

A certificate of outstanding achievement. And they gave you a bonus too.

You (?) a blessing.

You will leave it all here and go to the Hereafter. They stayed here. If this certificate you got for your outstanding achievement is not a service to humanity (?), in the world of the Hereafter, for the service you rendered to humanity, the reward and rank you receive are unlike those in this world. There you receive many times more. You profited here too, you benefited, but what you benefited here is little; from the blessing you benefited. And even if you had the wealth of the world, you ate and drank as much as your sustenance, and benefited only that much of it. The rest will remain behind as inheritance.

Inheritance. But to the Hereafter you took all of it. All of it. And you were also welcomed with gifts. With even more.

No person, merely by being Muslim, is put on the same scale and rewarded with the same reward. Well, he's Muslim, and I'm Muslim too. Why is he like that and I'm like this? Look, why is that? This man's nafs wanted to take interest; he didn't do it. This man's nafs wanted to drink alcohol; he didn't do it. This man's nafs wanted to learn gambling; he didn't do it. This man wanted to cheat someone else; he didn't do it. This man performed his prayer; you didn't. If you did pray, this man feared Allah; you didn't fear much. If you did fear, this man turned to piety; you didn't. There are differences between you.

This person came closer to Allah through his degree of faith. So you stayed at nefs-i emmare, he went up to nefs-i levvame; if you went up to nefs-i levvame, he went up to nefs-i mülhime. If you fell from nefs-i mülhime to nefs-i emmare, this one rose to nefs-i mutmainne. What happened? Muslim, yes, but this man gave up his night's sleep. He performed tahajjud prayers. He remembered his Lord with tasbih. He performed voluntary prayers. In his worldly affairs he worked as if he would never die. For the Hereafter he worshipped Allah as if he would die at once. And you had your nafs cleansed. How can you, by comparison, by comparison be on the same scale with him?

There is right and justice. Justice (?). That's how it is. So a person must measure his own nafs against Allah's religious rulings. If he cannot measure it, if that nafs partners with Satan, he always sides with his nafs. Because the human nafs never draws near to Allah's command. So a person uses his reason. "Do you not use your reason?" According to the verse. "Do you not reflect?" According to the verse, a person who cannot measure his own nafs against his Lord's verses can never see the truth, the straight path, with a (?) conscience and make the right decision. His decisions are crooked. He decides as it suits him.

Yes.

We understand justice, don't we? Yes. This is justice. What are we saying? No one, merely by being Muslim, is put on the same scale and given the same reward, the same reward. Since their efforts for Allah vary by degrees, such people's work for Allah also stands, in Allah's sight, above one another. Allah Almighty presents people who work for His sake, do good deeds and persist in obedience and worship as examples. He says: "Look how some people are superior to others." At the same time, also as a sign concerning a polytheist who has denied Allah and the Hereafter, and people who believed in Allah and the Hereafter and have faith, He says: "Look how some people are superior to others."