When was the last time you were absolutely certain about something?
If the answer takes a while, don't worry.
Such deep-in-your-gut conviction is so rare, the Arabic language has a special term for it.
Yaqeen, a classical Arabic word often found in spiritual and philosophical texts, is used to express a state of deep certainty.
It is also used to describe different shades of assuredness. For example, if you feel an inner certitude, then you are in a state of yaqeen.
The word can also be used to describe an unshakable truth or a heightened state of reality.
Yaqeen, and its root letters, are mentioned in the Quran and in various ways. Yaqinuna is described as an action, because it implores us to "believe with certainty", and as an adjective, al muuqinina, to describe a faithful community who “believe firmly”.
Such is its resonance, yaqeen is limited to the more poetic of Arabic songs.
In Robaa'eyat El Khayyam, Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum uses the term to assuage the heartbroken: “Do not torment yourself with the fear of suspicions / And seize from the present the security of certainty.”
While Saudi singer Mohammed Abdo, in Atny Fe El Hawak El Sabr, is confused by his partner’s assuredness: “I don't hold on to hope in you. My despair is growing. You have certainty, yet you leave the heart perplexed.”
Grand, emotive and poetic, yaqeen is the kind of word that allows us to examine our thoughts and actions.
