بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Nearing the end of Surah Al-A’la, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:

قَدۡ أَفۡلَحَ مَن تَزَكَّىٰ (١٤)

“Indeed, whosoever purifies himself shall achieve success.”

[Surah Al-A’la 87: 14]

This ayah seems straight forward. But if we carefully look into it, we will find that it is actually a very comprehensive ayah! And in order to really appreciate the lessons behind it, we need to unpack word by word. So let’s start with the first one:

🌸 Qad | قَدۡ

The first word, {Qad}, means ‘indeed / certainly / no doubt about it’. Anytime we come across an ayah that begins with the word {Qad}, means that what is about to come after this word is absolutely certain and serious as it could be.

So what is it that Allah wants us to be absolutely certain about?

That whoever purifies himself shall, no doubt about it, achieve success.

However, there is more to this ayah than meets the eye, as we shall soon see!

🌸 Aflaha | أَفۡلَحَ

A simple translation of the second word, {Aflaha}, is someone who has become successful. This particular success that Allah refers to is not just limited in this dunya, but also success in the hereafter.

Now here comes the strange part. {Aflaha / falaah | success} has the same root word as {fallaah | a farmer}. How is success related to a farmer? There is a hidden gem behind their connection!

We all know that the life of a farmer requires a lot of time and effort. He has to be out in his farm already in the early morning, making sure that the quality of the soil, quantity of water, and exposure to the sun are just right for his crops. He needs to take care of his farm daily from infestations and diseases, from his crops tilting too much, from extreme weather, and from many other types of hazards. There is so much work to be done in the life of a farmer!

And yet after doing all these work, he makes zero money at the end of the day. He doesn’t get monthly pay cheques like most of us do, because some crops take months, others may even take years to grow fruits. So a farmer has to struggle for months and years without income, and only during harvest season is when he finally gets his well-deserved pay cheque.

From this word {fallaah | a farmer} we get {aflaha / falaah | success}. And by using this word to describe success, there is an important message that we need to internalize: to achieve success, we need to put in a lot of work and effort!

Success doesn’t come from a wishy-washy attitude. This is the first gem!

🌸 Man | مَن

The third word means ‘whoever’ — and this word alone is the second gem, because its implication is so impactful. It implies that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has opened the path to success to every single one of us. It is not limited just for the pious. It is not limited only for the ustadzs and ustadzahs. It is not limited only for the Hujjaj.

It was opened for Abu Lahab.

It was opened for Abu Jahal.

It was opened even for Fir’aun!

No matter how bad or corrupt a person is, the path to success is opened for him.

But when a person dies without working towards that success, then this path is closed on him. Such was the case for Abu Lahab, Abu Jahal, and Fir’aun. We ask Allah to protect us from this calamity.

🌸 Tazakkaa |  تَزَكَّىٰ

So how exactly does one attain this success that Allah opens for everyone?

The path of success is through {tazakkaa | purification} of one’s nafs.

{Tazakkaa} essentially means purifying and cleaning oneself from major and minor sins, from the filthy and bad habits we may have — whether it’s backbiting, gossiping, or lying; whether it’s hasad (toxic jealousy towards others), kibr (feeling superior over others), self-conceit, vanity, and so on.

But notice that the letter ‘kaf’ in {tazakkaa} has a shadda on it — and there in lies the third gem. It implies that this purification requires continuous effort. Meaning, it’s not a one-off thing. It doesn’t happen only in Ramadhan. It doesn’t stop when we’ve done Hajj or ‘Umrah. 

It is a continuous effort until we meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

And check this out: Allah didn’t say that the one who is already purified will be successful, rather the one who has not attained purification and does not stop in purifying himself is the one who will achieve success — and this is the fourth and last gem.

As an imperfect human being, we will never achieve 100% purification of our nafs in this dunya. It happens only to the Prophets, peace be upon them all. But for you and me, Allah ta'ala declares that successful is the one who continuously puts in effort to cleanse himself from sins, from his bad habits and character, and doesn’t give up whenever he falls into mistakes again. This is the road to success!

Indeed, the purification of nafs is a constant internal battle that we all face until we meet Allah ta’ala. If there is one person who knows all of our flaws, weaknesses, bad habits, all the hours we have wasted, all the things we could be doing better — it’s ourselves. So work on to purify these matters from our nafs no matter how many times we might stumble along the way, and no matter how long the journey may take.

Because just like the farmer, we will reap the full and immense reward for our efforts in harvest season — and in order to harvest in the akhirah, cultivation has to begin in this dunya. 

When we put all these four gems together, the meaning of the ayah becomes:

“There is no doubt about it, anyone who puts in a lot of work and effort, and continuously purifies himself from sins will achieve success.”

[Surah Al-A’la 87: 14]

May Allah grant us success in this dunya and akhirah. آمـــــــــين

Your sister in Deen,

Aida Msr