“And we used to deny the Day of Judgment, until certainty came to us.”

They said this while in Hell. They explained that they had persisted in neglecting prayer and zakat, denying the Hereafter, and engaging in vain discourse with those who did so, until certainty came to them.

Clearly, while in that state, they did not believe in it during their worldly lives, nor were they among those of whom Allah said:

“And of the Hereafter they are certain.”

Rather, what is meant is that what they had been promised came to them: that is certainty. The same meaning occurs in the authentic hadith concerning the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“When ʿUthmān ibn Mazʿūn died, one of the women testified that he would enter Paradise. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to her, ‘How do you know? By Allah, although I am Allah’s Messenger, I do not know what will be done with me.’”

He also said:

“As for ʿUthmān, certainty has come to him from his Lord.”

That is, what He had promised him had come to him: that is certainty. The word yaqīn (certainty) follows the morphological pattern faʿīl. Whether faʿīl here has the sense of mafʿūl, a passive participle—meaning death—as in habīb (beloved), nasīh (one sincerely advised), and dhabīh (one slaughtered), or whether it is a verbal noun used in place of a passive participle, as in His words:

“This is Allah’s creation,”

and His words:

“Allah’s command has come,”

and the expressions, “The ruler struck,” and “May Allah forgive you”—it has also been said: their expression “a mighty power,” and similar expressions, which are numerous—the meaning does not differ under either analysis.

Rather, certainty is what the servants have been promised concerning the Hereafter. His words:

“Until certainty comes to you,”

are like saying, “What you have been promised will come to you.”

But as for supposing that the meaning is: “Worship Him until you attain certainty, and thereafter no worship