“And They had Certainty in Our Signs”- Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

And They Had Certainty in Our Signs

And we made from amongst them leaders who were guided to our affairs once they showed patience. And they had certainty in our verses and our signs.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said that if someone wants to gain leadership — any type of leadership, wants to excel in a position of responsibility — Allah in this verse mentions the two most important characteristics that they need. Firstly, that they need patience, and secondly, that they need certainty. Certainty in Allah's promise. Certainty in their belief in Allah. Certainty in the message that Allah has given to us in the Qur'an.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه said, in what is captured in Sahih al-Bukhari:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, reported by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه)

Patience — it is half of your Iman. But certainty — it is all of Iman. Certainty is what our Iman is based upon.

The Certainty of the Prophets

When we look throughout the book of Allah, the Qur'an, and we see the stories of the Prophets that Allah relates to us over and over again, time and time again — there is one pattern, or many patterns, that we see. But one of those that most stands out is the certainty that those Prophets of Allah had in Allah. The certainty of their Iman, the certainty in the promise that Allah had given to them, the certainty that Allah would aid and assist them and help them and make their affairs upright.

Ibrahim (عليه السلام)

Allah tells us concerning the Prophet Ibrahim عليه السلام:

And thus we showed to Ibrahim our dominion over the heavens and the earth, and so that he would be from amongst those who have certainty.

From the certainty of Ibrahim عليه السلام is that when his people threw him into the raging pyre of fire, burning him alive, Jibreel عليه السلام came to him and said, "O Ibrahim, do you need anything?" And Ibrahim's response was:

Allah is sufficient for us, and what a blessed protector.

From his certainty in Allah is that when Allah commanded him to take his son Ismail عليه السلام and to slaughter and sacrifice him by his own hand, he did so having certainty in Allah's promise. Until Allah said to him:

O Ibrahim, you have fulfilled your dream. This is how we reward those who do good.

Nuh (عليه السلام)

Nuh عليه السلام had certainty in Allah when Allah commanded him to build an ark in the middle of dry land:

Allah commanded him to build an ark in the middle of dry land — like one of us coming and building a ship in the middle of the city of Birmingham, hundreds of miles away from the ocean and the sea. But when he was given the command of Allah, despite his people mocking him, humiliating him, making fun of him:

As he was building the ark, every time a group of his people would pass by, they would make fun of him. Who builds an ark in the middle of dry land? Who builds a ship in the middle of nowhere, miles away from water and sea and ocean? And he said to them: just as you make fun of me, a time will come when I will be the one to make fun of you as you made fun of me. He had certainty in the promise of Allah until Allah caused those floods to come upon the earth.

Musa (عليه السلام)

The Prophet Musa عليه السلام had certainty in Allah's promise when he was escaping with his nation from Pharaoh and they came to the sea before them, with Pharaoh and his armies behind them:

When the two armies and the two peoples could see one another — before them the sea, behind them Pharaoh with his armies and his weapons and his cavalry — the people of Musa said, "We have been caught." But Musa عليه السلام had certainty:

He said: No. I have with me my Lord — He will guide me. He had certainty in Allah's promise. So much certainty that when Allah said to him, "Take that staff that is in your hand and strike the sea," he didn't question. He didn't have a moment of uncertainty, thinking, what will the stick do to this ocean?

We commanded Musa: strike the ocean with your staff — and it split. Because he had certainty in Allah's promise.

Just as before him, the mother of Musa عليه السلام had certainty. When Musa was a baby in the cradle — couldn't speak, couldn't defend himself, couldn't walk, couldn't do anything — Allah inspired to his mother:

We inspired to the mother of Musa that she should suckle and feed him, and that if she feared for his life, she should cast him into the river and not fear nor show any despair. Indeed, we will return him to you and make him from amongst the messengers. So when the soldiers of Pharaoh came to her house, she didn't stop, she didn't hesitate. She took her son in his basket and she placed him in the river of the Nile, trusting in Allah, having certainty in the promise of Allah.

Yusuf and Ya'qub (عليهما السلام)

Yusuf عليه السلام had the same certainty in Allah when his own blood brothers took him and threw him down a deep well and left him for dead. And his father Ya'qub عليه السلام had the same certainty when many years later his second son Binyamin (Benjamin) was taken from him. And his brothers — his own sons — came to him and said:

Your son has stolen — he's a thief. Ya'qub عليه السلام had certainty in Allah's promise:

It is beautiful to be patient. Perhaps Allah will reunite all of us together — bring all of us back together.

Maryam (عليها السلام)

Maryam عليها السلام had certainty in Allah's promise when she gave birth to her son Isa عليه السلام. She knew that the people would come and attack her honor, attack her chastity and her modesty. So she took an oath to Allah that she would not speak to any human. When they came and started to accuse her and blame her:

She pointed to her son, having certainty in Allah. They said, "How can we speak to a child in the cradle? Why are you pointing to him? How can he defend you?" But he spoke, by Allah's permission:

And he said, "I am Allah's servant. He has given to me the scripture and made me a prophet."

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and His Companions

Over and over again we have these examples in the Qur'an. And not least of them is the example of our own Prophet ﷺ. When the Prophet ﷺ was making hijrah with Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه and they were hiding in the cave, and those soldiers from Quraysh came and were standing at the mouth of the cave, Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه said, "O Messenger of Allah, one of them only has to look down and he will see us." Allah says in the Qur'an:

But the Prophet ﷺ had certainty in Allah — no doubt, no room for uncertainty, certainty in Allah's promise. He said to him, "Don't despair, for indeed Allah is with us."

And the Prophet of Allah ﷺ had certainty after the battle of Uhud, when the Quraysh were regrouping to come back and attack the Muslims for a second time. The people came and said:

The people came and said that the enemies have gathered once again to come and fight. But Allah says He only increased them in Iman — because of the certainty that the Prophet ﷺ and the companions رضي الله عنهم أجمعين had in Allah. Certainty just after they had suffered a difficult situation in the battle of Uhud — over seventy Muslims had been martyred, the Prophet ﷺ himself was injured and blood was flowing from his body. But He increased them in Iman.

And they said — as Ibn Abbas رضي الله عنهما said — that when Ibrahim عليه السلام was thrown into the fire and the Prophet ﷺ was told that the people had come to attack him, both of them said the same thing: Hasbunallahu wa ni'mal wakeel — Allah is sufficient for us. What a blessed protector.

And when the confederate armies — the Ahzab — came and laid siege to the city of Madinah:

When the confederates came and the believers saw them gathering, they had certainty in Allah despite the hypocrites saying to them, "O people of Yathrib, your time is over — go home, leave. These armies have come and gathered to fight and kill you." But they had certainty in Allah's promise. They said: This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us. And Allah and His Messenger have been truthful in their promise. And it only increased them in Iman and in submission to Allah.

Yaqeen — The Foundation of Iman

So Allah over and over again in the Qur'an tells me and you that the cornerstone, the foundation of our Iman in Allah, is our belief in Allah that is based upon yaqeen and certainty. We don't have any trepidation. We don't have any hesitation. We don't have any unsurety about what Allah has said to us in the Qur'an or what He sent His Prophet with ﷺ. Because we live in a time where trials are all around us. We live in a time where if a person doesn't have certainty in their religion, then the smallest puff of air or the slightest breeze will knock them down. Whereas those Prophets of Allah in the Qur'an, despite having challenges and tests and trials the size of mountains, remained firm and steadfast by Allah's permission because of the yaqeen that they had in Allah.

So Allah at the beginning of the Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, begins by telling us that this is what we need:

Alif Lam Mim. This is the book in which there is no doubt. It is a guidance for the pious — those who believe in the unseen, and they establish the prayer, and they spend from that which we have provided them with. And those who believe in that which we have revealed to you and that which was revealed to those who came before you. And they have certainty in the Hereafter — certainty in Yawm Al-Qiyamah, certainty in the meeting with Allah. They have no room for doubt. They have certainty in what Allah has told them.

Allah is the one who caused the heavens to be raised without any visible structural support. And He subjugated the sun and the moon — each one of them runs in its due course. He is the one who controls all affairs and explains and makes manifest all signs so that you will have certainty in the meeting with your Lord.

And in the earth there are signs for those who have certainty.

And Allah rebukes the people of the fire and describes those who don't have certainty:

And when it is said to them that the promise of Allah is true and the Hour in which there is no doubt, they say: we don't know what this Hour is. It is only conjecture in our opinion and we have no certainty regarding this.

Ask Allah for Yaqeen

So the Prophet ﷺ told us, in the hadith of Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه that is collected in the Sunan of Ibn Majah and the Musnad of Imam Ahmad:

(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 3849; Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 1)

Ask Allah for certainty and ask Allah for good health. For no one was granted something which is better after certainty than good health.

Ask Allah for certainty. Ask Allah that He gives you certainty so that when you make du'a to Allah, you're certain that Allah will respond — certain. You don't have doubt. You don't think it's impossible. You don't think it's unrealistic. As the Prophet told us ﷺ in the hadith of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه:

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3479)

When you make du'a to Allah, have certainty that Allah will respond.

We have certainty that Allah will provide for us, certainty that Allah will sustain us. That Allah will give us wealth — so that when we give charity and we spend in the path of Allah, when we have that slight hesitation that what we spend won't be returned to us, that Allah won't bless our wealth or increase our wealth — it is that lack of certainty that then makes Allah respond in the way that we think of Allah. But if we had certainty, as the man said when he heard the verse being recited in the Qur'an:

And in the heavens is your provision and that which you have been promised. The Bedouin man was sitting in the Haram. When he heard this verse being recited, he took his camel — his prized possession — and he slaughtered it and distributed its meat in the Haram. And he said, "I have no fear of poverty after hearing this verse." Then it is later said that the same Bedouin man was seen a few years later in the Haram and he was rich and wealthy. Allah had blessed him in his wealth because he had certainty in the promise of Allah.

The Story of Raja' ibn Haywa and His Nephew

Raja' ibn Haywa رحمه الله تعالى, a scholar from the scholars of the Tabi'een who studied under the likes of Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Abu Darda', and Abu Sa'id al-Khudri رضي الله عنهم. He was from the people of the Tabi'een to whom the khalifa Sulayman ibn Abdul Malik would give a monthly stipend of thirty gold dinars. Thirty gold dinars every month. But before the month had even finished, he would have spent it all in the path of Allah — giving it all away in charity to the poor and the needy, to the widow and the orphan. Before half the month sometimes would elapse, he would have nothing left from those thirty gold dinars. But his nephew says that the month would not finish except that he would have more than what he began with — Allah would give him more than the thirty dinars he had spent in charity.

So his nephew decided that he would do the same. The next month he did the same — he spent and he spent. But by the end of the month he had nothing left. Allah didn't give him the same. Allah didn't give him more. So he came to his uncle and said, "O my uncle, I saw you every month — you spend what you have and Allah gives you more. And when I did the same, Allah didn't return to me the same or even more." The scholar said to him, "O my nephew, when I spend, I have certainty in Allah's promise. And when you spend, you are testing Allah. You don't have certainty. You're testing Allah to see whether Allah will give it to you or not. You don't know for sure. You have hesitation in Allah's promise. As for me, I have certainty."

Yaqeen — A Condition of Lā ilāha illallāh

When you have that certainty in Allah, that single act of the heart that is so powerful — that act of worship of yaqeen — it is from the conditions of لا إله إلا الله. That you have certainty that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah. Certainty in the truthfulness of the Qur'an and our Prophet ﷺ. Certainty in Allah's promises of paradise and the hellfire. When you have that certainty, that single act of worship can elevate every other deed that you do which accompanies that certainty.

Ibn Taymiyyah رحمه الله تعالى said that sometimes you perform a small action, a small deed, but because of the certainty in your heart, Allah elevates your station. Allah makes it from the greatest of deeds that you have performed. And that's why across the Sunnah you have those ahadith of people who do a small action — something small, something trivial, something menial — but their reward is great because certainty accompanies it.

The Prophet told us ﷺ in the hadith of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 27)

Whoever testifies to Allah's oneness in worship and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and they meet Allah having no doubt regarding this, Allah will enter them into Jannah. But they have to have certainty in Allah's promise. And from that certainty comes a confidence, a strength of conviction, an inner strength of the heart — that despite all of the issues and problems and challenges that we face, we have certainty in Allah's promise. So we still pray five times a day, we give our zakah, we fast the month of Ramadan, we do what Allah wants from us and stay away from the haram, despite all those external factors — because of our certainty in Allah.

The Hadith of the Two Sandals

In the hadith that is collected in Sahih Muslim on the authority of Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه, he said: we were sitting with the Prophet ﷺ — a group of us — and amongst us was Abu Bakr and Umar رضي الله عنهما. And as we were sitting and talking, I saw the Prophet ﷺ get up slowly and walk away without anyone noticing and he left us, and we didn't see him. So when the people noticed, they became afraid. What happened to the Prophet ﷺ?

Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه says: I was the first one to become afraid. So I went to search for the Prophet ﷺ and I found that he was sitting in a garden from the gardens of the tribe of Banu Najjar. As I walked around the walls of the garden, I saw no entrance, no gate, no door. But I saw a stream coming from the garden and a hole through which the water would come out. So I squeezed through the hole and I came and I saw the Prophet ﷺ.

He said, "Abu Hurairah, is that you?" And I said, "O Messenger of Allah, yes." He said to me, "What's wrong with you, Abu Hurairah?" So I told him, "O Messenger of Allah, you left quietly. We didn't see you. We became afraid. And so we searched for you and I was the first one to find you."

The Prophet ﷺ took off his sandals and said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 31)

O Abu Hurairah, take these two sandals of mine, and whoever you meet outside of these walls of this garden who testifies to Allah's oneness in worship and that I am the Messenger of Allah, and they have certainty in their heart of this — give them glad tidings of Jannah.

Abu Hurairah said: I took those two sandals and squeezed back outside through that hole. And the first people I saw were Abu Bakr and Umar رضي الله عنهما. So I gave them the glad tidings with which the Prophet ﷺ had sent me. Umar رضي الله عنه, when he heard this, struck me and hit me so hard that I fell down on the ground. And then he said to me, "Go back to the Prophet ﷺ and don't tell anyone else." So I came back to the Prophet ﷺ and Umar followed me, and I was almost crying because of the force of that strike — Umar was a strong man رضي الله عنه.

The Prophet said to me ﷺ, "What happened, Abu Hurairah?" So I told him, "O Messenger of Allah, I gave the glad tidings as you instructed me, and this is how Umar responded." The Prophet ﷺ said — and look at the mercy, the gentleness, the forbearance of our Prophet ﷺ — "O Umar, why did you do what you did?" He said, "O Messenger of Allah, did you actually say this to him? Did you tell him to say this?" The Prophet said ﷺ, "Yes, I did." He said, "O Messenger of Allah, don't do so — because if you tell the people this, they will become lazy and they won't perform good deeds and they won't worship, and they will put all of their reliance and trust on simply this one statement of yours." The Prophet said ﷺ, "Then don't tell them and let them continue to worship Allah."

Look at this amazing hadith of our Prophet ﷺ. Whoever meets Allah whilst having certainty in this, they will have that glad tidings of Jannah. But having certainty in the heart leads a person to worshipping Allah. When you're certain that Allah is your Lord and your God and your Creator and the only one worthy of worship, you worship Allah and you do the good deeds and you come closer to Allah and you find ways of drawing closer to Allah — because that is part of having that certainty in Allah's promise.

The Example of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

If you want to see an example of certainty, then look at Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه. The Prophet ﷺ was taken on the night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem to the seven heavens and back in a single night. The next morning, he told Quraysh of what had happened. But Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه was yet to hear of this incident. Some of those people of Quraysh went to Abu Bakr and said, "Do you know what your companion is now claiming? He's claiming that he went in a single night from Mecca to Jerusalem — and not only that, but then to the seven heavens and back in a single night." Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه didn't have any hesitation, didn't show a single moment of doubt or uncertainty. He said, "If that's what he said, then I believe him. For I already believe that Allah gives to him revelation from above the seven heavens." He had no doubt. So he was given the title of al-Siddiq — the one who testifies to the truth without any moment of doubt.

When the Prophet ﷺ passed away and the companions were upset — some of them so upset that they didn't know how to respond — Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه had so much certainty that he stood amongst all of those companions — Umar, Uthman, and all of them رضي الله عنهم أجمعين — and he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3667)

Whoever worships Muhammad — Muhammad has passed away. And whoever worships Allah, then Allah is ever-living and He will never die.

And when in his time as khalifa, those people refused to pay zakah and said zakah was only for the Prophet ﷺ — that they would not pay to Abu Bakr or anyone after him — Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه was the only one amongst the companions who stood and said, "By Allah, I will fight those who differentiate between the prayer and zakah. By Allah, if they withhold from me a single rope that they used to give in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, I will fight them over it." That was the yaqeen he had — certainty in Allah and His promise. That's what certainty brings. Certainty brings that type of conviction, that type of strength, that type of confidence.

Du'a — Asking Allah for Yaqeen

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ told us to make du'a for yaqeen. Ask Allah to grant us and bestow upon us certainty. So we ask Allah on this blessed day of Friday, in this blessed place, this masjid, as we're performing this blessed act of worship of Salat al-Jumu'ah, that Allah bestows upon us certainty, and that Allah gives to us and showers upon us His mercy and blessings and forgiveness, and that Allah gives us the strength to withstand all of the tests and the trials and the challenges that face us.

We ask Allah that He makes us from amongst those people who die upon certainty — the certainty of لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله — and that we are raised and resurrected with that certainty and that Allah rewards us for having it. May Allah make our affairs easy for us and may Allah keep us and our families safe from the traps and the trials of Shaitan.