Certainty

Allah says:

Worship your Lord until certainty comes upon you. (15:99)

The popular translation of Al Yaqeen is death. So one can translate this verse to mean: Worship your Lord until death comes to you.

The term Al Yaqeen, can mean many things; for example one meaning can be; to worship your Lord, until you realize that He is the Truth, Permanent and Everlasting. He says:

This is because for certain Allah is Truth. (22:6)

As we journey through the phases of life we realize that there are many things that we need to know and always keep in mind. Some of these are:

• The physical body is just a shell.
• It has a life span.
• It can be kept clean and decorated, or it can be damaged and soiled.
• In it is housed the soul.
• This can be polished or kept dirty by the physical shell
• The body is subjected to physical laws, not the soul

·        We are existing because of the Grace of Allah. He says: All bounties are in the Hands of Allah. He grants them to whom He pleases. (3:73)

With certainty comes wisdom. The wise person realizes that he must not be arrogant, and he must not believe that his material possessions can save him for the will of the Lord, nor will it stay with him forever. He keeps on reminding himself of what Allah says: i.e.

Do not walk in the earth arrogantly, because you cannot crush the earth or reach the heights of the mountains. (17:37-39)

Al Yaqeen also enables us to understand that all creatures have a life span, and that our ends are already written.

It helps to always be aware of the fact that Allah can destroy us and the entire universe if He so desires, and can bring a new creation into existence.

One of the beautiful achievements of Al Yaqeen is to experience our closeness with our Lord. The body alone will not be able to realize this as it gets its knowledge through reason and logic.

Allah made this known to us by telling us about the experience of the Prophet (pboh) He says:

So did Allah reveal to His Servant what He wanted to reveal. His heart did not falsify what he saw. (53:10-11)

When a person gets a little of the benefits of Al Yaqeen, he realizes that no one has the power to stop death, and when it comes all material things will remain behind and will be of no use on the onward journey.

Many people will then realize that they wasted the precious gift of life, and they will be returning with very little success for the remainder of the journey. Try not to be among them.

True success is to realize that we are helpless creatures in the Hands of the Lord, and we need to win His Favours in order to dwell in Paradise to live in Eternal Bliss and Peace.