Praise be to Allah! We thank Him, seek His assistance, and repent to Him. We also have recourse to Him against the evil in ourselves and the wickedness of our deeds. Whoever Allah chooses to guide to the right path may never be misguided and whoever goes astray shall find no guide to help him. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah Who has no partner and that Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) is Allah’s servant and Messenger.

      O you who believe! Fear Allâh (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islâm [as Muslims (with complete submission to Allâh. [Âl-‘Imrân: 102]

      O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife [Hawwâ (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women; and fear Allâh through Whom you demand (your mutual rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship) . Surely, Allâh is Ever an All-Watcher over you.  [An-Nisâ’:1]

 O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allâh and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth.  (70) He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allâh and His Messenger (??? ???? ???? ????), he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved from the Hell-fire and will be admitted to Paradise. [Al-Ahzâb: 70-71]  

     The truest words are those of Allah and the best guidance is that of Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam).The most evil of things is novelty (bid’ah) in religion; every such novelty is an innovation, and every innovation is straying away from the right path.

     O Muslims!

     ‘Yaqin’ is a quality that is difficult to attain, an ambition aspired to by every wise and intelligent spirit, a road rarely trodden, a calling voice in the wilderness, a companion in the desolation of selfishness, a strength in the tempest of weakness, a quenching at the peak of thirst, a  torch in the darkness, and an abundance in paucity.

     Whoever attains this quality reaches the heights of heaven even if he were lying in his bed, and whoever is clothed in it achieves prestige, reverence and eminence above all those of reputation, lineage, and  power. It is a quality that cannot be purchased with money nor can it be acquired by force.

     It is a quality and a characteristic much recommended by our Prophet and exemplar (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) as he always orders us to pursue what is good for us. He (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said, “Ask Allah for certitude and wellness, for next to certitude, wellness is the best thing one can receive.” [narrated by Ahmad]

     This quality is that of certitude, O servants of Allah! It is that type of  certitude with which knowledge of Allah (?) becomes terminally established  deep down the  believer’s heart  which would then be permeated by a feeling of tranquility as to the reality of things and  would be filled with faith in the unknown past, present, and future by having all his doubts about Allah removed.

      Hence a man may attain the three well-known levels of certitude: certitude through knowing, certitude through seeing, and certitude through the Manifest Truth.

     Certitude is to belief what the soul is to the body, so without certitude one would be but a body devoid of its soul. A believer must have certitude about the truthfulness of the words of Allah (?). Thus he has to trust in the words of Allah (?) and those of His Messenger (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam). He, therefore, gives credence to the commands and prohibitions of Allah and His messenger (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam). Only then can a believer feel sublimity and glee for having attained a degree that has never been achieved by anyone in the nation of Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) save the second most favored man (after Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) Al-Seddik  (?) whose certitude made him stand firm and steadfast in three situations, which history has recorded in sparkling ink, at a time when sedition moved stern mountains.

     The first situation: When the infidels of Quraish came to him with the purpose of  shaking his faith in his religion and in what he was told by his Prophet and friend  (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) -they said to him: Your friend claimed that he was taken on a night journey [Isra’]  to Jerusalem and then was made to ascend to heaven [Me’eraj]. He answered without hesitation so that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) could hear what he said; He rather said – being certain in his knowledge of the veracity of the ever-truthful, ever-believable Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) and uttered his famous saying: “If he had said that, then he told the truth.”

     Yes, indeed. “If he had said that, then he told the truth.”

     The second situation: When he stood on the pulpit and faced the crowds that were screaming, refusing to believe that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) had passed away, he said to them: “Those who used to worship Muhammad, they must know that Muhammad is now dead, but those who used to worship Allah, they must know that Allah is the Ever-Living, the Immortal.”

     The third situation: When he, as an individual, stood up representing an entire nation in the face of the apostates and uttered his famous saying: “I swear to Allah I will fight whoever discriminates between prayer and charity. I swear to Allah, if they withheld from me a piece of rope they used to donate to the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), I would fight them over it.”

     Certitude is not a mere abstract mental conviction. If it were just that, there would have been no need for the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) who is endowed with the most perfect of minds and the purest of hearts, before he was entrusted with the prophethood, to have such certitude; yet Allah said about him:  And thus We have sent to you (O Muhammad ??? ???? ???? ? ???) Ruh (a Revelation, and a Mercy) of Our Command. You knew not what is the Book, nor what is Faith? But We have made it (this Qur’ân) a light wherewith We guide whosoever of Our slaves We will. And verily, you (O Muhammad ??? ???? ???? ? ???) are indeed guiding (mankind) to the Straight Path (i.e. Allâh’s Religion of Islâmic Monotheism). (52) The Path of Allâh to Whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Verily, all matters at the end go to Allâh (for decision) (53) [Ash-Shurâ: 52-53]

     With this in mind, we find that when Hercules asked Abou Sufyan (?), before he converted to Islam, “Does any one of the followers of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) abandon his religion out of discontent after being converted to it?” He said: “No”.  He said: “And so is faith, if its joviality penetrates the hearts no one will feel discontented with it.”

     O servants of Allah! It is known that belief, once its joviality touches the heart it can elevate the individual to the degree of certitude which is never followed by discontentment with anything pertaining to the religion of Allah.

     If the person who believes in his Lord lived his life in certainty about Allah, he would realize that the world, to Allah, is not worth ‘a wing of a mosquito’ and that he would not obtain from it anything more than what was ordained for him as he has a sublime objective surpassing those of the others, and whoever experiences this is bound to know its truth.  Seeing is not like hearing because certitude is an act of the heart that takes place between the believer and his Lord and no one would be able to notice its effect on him except those endowed with quick perception and special insight, particularly while fearing Allah privately and in public, telling the truth when angry or happy, and resigning oneself to the commands of Allah and His Messenger (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) whether in difficulty or in ease.

     Those possessing certitude are entitled to be favored with insight, guidance, and compassion for true religious life rests on these three qualities. Allah the Almighty truly said:  This (Qur’an) is a clear insight and evidence for mankind, and a guidance and a mercy for people who have Faith with certainty    [Al-Jâthiyah: 20].

     O servants of Allah! A believer who really feels yaqin is one who believes in no other deity but Allah, implores and fears no one but Him. He is not harmed by whoever goes astray when he himself has found the right path. He is just as content when people walk away with the sheep, cattle, the Dinars and Dirhams [money] or when they boast distinguished lineage and prestige, when he has on his side only Allah (?) because those who know Allah may just ignore those who don’t, and those who know the truth may not be harmed by those who know but evil.

     This, O servants of Allah, admits no doubt, for whoever has found Allah, what could he then have lost? And whoever has lost Allah, what could he then have found?

     Allah endowed his close friend, Ibrahim (?) with yaqin, when He said:  Thus did we show Ibrâhîm (Abraham) the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that he be one of those who have Faith with certainty.  [Al-An’âm: 75].

     Thus, his ‘yaqin’ about Allah only further confirmed his faith in Him, and that he was following the clear Truth. His ‘yaqin’ also confirmed his conviction that his people, who worshipped other deities than Allah and diverted people’s attention from Allah’s Path, went astray and turned away from it, though they were perceptive people.

     O servants of Allah! It is ‘yaqin’ which made Al-Khalil Ibrahim (?) obey the command of his Lord to slaughter his son, Ismail (as sacrifice to Allah), and it is ‘yaqin’ which made his son Ismail say:  O my father! Do that which you are commanded, Inshâ’ Allâh (if Allâh wills), you shall find me of As-Sâbirûn (the patient).  [As-Saffat: 102]

     Prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said "The most cherished of all deeds for Allah is true faith.” [Narrated by Ahmad]

 And this is the renowned level ‘yaqin’ through knowledge.

     Ibn Masud (?) said: “Patience makes half of Faith and ‘yaqin’ all of it.” [Narrated by Bukhari]

     None can be a guide and rightly guided in his home, marketplace, community, and ummah while he lacks the most important components of ‘yaqin’ about Allah.  Allah (?) says:

  And We made from among them (Children of Israel), leaders, giving guidance under Our Command, when they were patient and used to believe with certainty in Our Ayât (proofs, evidence, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.).  [As-Sajdah: 24] Notice here that Allah (?) has not used the words   ‘with gratitude’, ‘with rationality’ or ‘with attention’ since the people having such qualities are many.

     For this, since leadership in Religion is precious, Allah associated it with something precious within the hearts: it is ‘yaqin’ about Allah. No one can realize the true meaning of ‘yaqin’ or enjoy its fruit except he who approaches life and death the way a knowledgeable scholar does.

        The Commander of the Faithful, Ali (?) abridged the concept of ‘yaqin’ in the most concise phrase in dealing with life and death which constitute the object of ‘yaqin’ about Allah. He (?) said (in two lines of poetry) that life and death are from Allah and are (therefore) inescapable:

     This is a type of ‘yaqin’ wherein he called to mind every moment the human being weakens before the vanities of this worldly life at the expense of his Creator and Lord.  Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? But little is the enjoyment of the life of this world as compared to the Hereafter.  [At-Taubah: 38]

      In the Name of Allâh, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:  The mutual rivalry (for piling up of worldly things) diverts you, Until you visit the graves (i.e. till you die). Nay! You shall come to know! Again nay! You shall come to know! Nay! If you knew with a sure knowledge (the end result of piling up, you would not have been occupied yourselves in worldly things). Verily, You shall see the blazing Fire (Hell)! And again, you shall see it with certainty of sight! Then on that Day you shall be asked about the delights (you indulged in, in this world)!  [At-Takathur: 1-8]

     May Allah bless you and me by the Noble Qur'?n and Sunnah, and make the Qur'?n's verses and wise sayings beneficial to you and me. This is what I have said. If it is true, it is from Allah, but if it is wrong, it is from myself and Satan. I seek forgiveness from Almighty Allah. Verily, He is Oft-Forgiving.