Editorial

The Gravity of the Trust We Keep

Trust is an intricately layered word; it’s like a multi-faceted diamond, shining a different light with each new perspective. Likewise, it is similarly a precious and fragile treasure that can easily shatter in the hands of those who handle it ham-handedly. The Arabic counterpart of the word trust, amanah, takes this understanding to the next level.

Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) gives this staggering example of how vulnerable amanah is in an unguarded heart:

“A man will go to sleep whereupon amanah will be taken away from his heart, and only its trace will remain, like speckles. He then will sleep, whereupon the remainder of the amanah will also be taken away, and a trace will remain like a blister, like an ember that you roll on your feet; it causes pain, and you see it swollen while it contains nothing.” Then he took a pebble and rolled it over his leg.

Following this, he continued his hadith, elaborating on how devastating the loss of amanah will be for all of society. He described that trustworthy people would be few and far between as time passed. Honesty among people would become increasingly rare with each day until such a time came that people would come to be admired not for their trustworthiness but their strength, intelligence, and good manners; all the while, said people would have no faith in their hearts.

Much like this trust-keeping and the dire consequences of failing to do so are mentioned in the hadith, there is yet an even more exacting form of trust Allah (jalla jalaluhu) refers to in the Qur’an:

“Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it, but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.” (Al-Ahzab, 72)

Undoubtedly, to treat so triflingly a trust that the heavens, the earth, and the mountains declined, brushing it off as but a minor inconvenience, can only be described as the height of folly and ignorance. Can someone who doesn’t take the monumental trust of serving and obeying Allah seriously be trusted to keep the trust of their fellow man safe?

In this world of tests, we are entrusted with proctoring our own. This is the real trust; the one Allah laid on our souls when we proclaimed our submission to Him in qalu bala. We have no immediate adjudicator bringing swift judgment upon our heads the moment we infringe upon the laws of Allah. Instead, we must hold ourselves accountable for our actions under the guidance of the Qur’an and sunnah as long as we live. Meanwhile, lingering on us is the ever-vigilant gaze of the awliya of Allah, who rectify our course when we depart from His straight path. So, while we Muslims are ostensibly left to our own devices in this world, fumbling with a delicate trust—depending on which no less than our eternal lives hang in the balance—there are certainly many chosen servants of Allah, the awliya, watching over His trust by guiding us.

I pray that we remain faithful keepers of this trust, and I hope to see you in the December issue inshallah.

M. Galip Dönmez