What is the interpretation of Allah’s saying: "If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is to yourselves. Then when came the promise of the Hereafter, [We sent Our servants] to sadden your faces and to enter the Masjid as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had conquered with [total] destruction" in Surat Al-Isra, especially since the word "Masjid" has been translated as "temple" in English?
Sheikh Al-Sa'di interprets the verse "If you do good, you do good for yourselves; and if you do evil, it is for it [i.e., yourselves]" to mean that benefit and harm revert to the doer. He points out that their corruption in the land will cause enemies to be unleashed upon them: "to disfigure your faces and to enter the temple as they entered it the first time and to utterly destroy what they had elevated." The "temple" here refers to Al-Aqsa Mosque. As for using the word "ma'bad" (temple) instead of "masjid" (mosque), there is no linguistic harm in it, but it is preferable to use the legal/ Shar'i term "masjid."
Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026
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