وَٱعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَكَ ٱلْيَقِينُ
The root was analysed in detail at al-Takāthur 102/5, and what was recorded there holds here too; I rely on that treatment:
The complete removal of doubt; knowledge settling, becoming fixed. Some of the lexicographers record that under the root there is a sense of settling, sedimenting, coming to rest — like turbid water clearing and sinking to the bottom. Yaqīn is opinion settling into knowledge.
"Serve your Lord until the certainty comes to you" (al-Ḥijr 15/99). According to the majority of the exegetes the certainty here is death — because death is the moment about which no doubt remains.
In the classical commentaries the following views are chiefly transmitted about what the word corresponds to here:
| View | What yaqīn is | Its ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Death | At al-Muddaththir 74/47 the same word occurs in this sense: ḥattā atānā'l-yaqīn — the words of the people of the fire |
| 2 | Certain knowledge, the reaching of certainty | This is the basic sense of the root |
| 3 | The resurrection and what follows it | The moment at which doubt is wholly removed |
| 4 | The promised help or victory | The context of the sūra — distress and consolation |
The ground given for the first view is a datum that can be verified in the index, and I record it: at al-Muddaththir 74/43-47 the same construction (ḥattā atānā'l-yaqīn) occurs at the end of a speech, and what is recounted there is the ending of a group's state in this world. This is a textual indication supporting the first reading; but I do not count it by itself a ground for a preference.
And I record this as well: the second and fourth readings require the command of the verse to be for a term — they can be pulled to mean that after a certain point service would end. It is widely said that the classical commentaries reject this possibility and emphasise that the particle ḥattā here means "throughout life". I transmit this as the widespread tendency of the tradition; I ascribe it to no particular source.
| Verse | What is given |
|---|---|
| 97 | A diagnosis — we know your breast is straitened |
| 98 | Two commands — glorification and prostration |
| 99 | A term — service, until the certainty comes |
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the arrangement of the three verses: the sūra does not close by ending the dispute outside. It closes with a command that turns back into the one addressed — and it sets a term to that command. Four times throughout the sūra a "determined" boundary was spoken of (4, 21, 38, 44); the last verse sets a boundary to the addressee's own work as well.