بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ
Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to whom they are due and when you judge between people to judge with justice. Excellent is that which Allah instructs you. Indeed, Allah is ever Hearing and Seeing.
[4:58]
One of the principles of Islam given by Allah in the Qur’an is the matter of fulfilling trusts. When we as Muslims hear about trusts or rights we mainly think about Allahs rights upon us such as prayer or fasting Ramadan, but it goes a lot deeper than this.
Let’s look at the language used. Allah starts off by saying that indeed He commands us to fulfil the trusts we are responsible for. He could have simply mentioned the ruling alone but instead starts with “ina Allah” highlighting that indeed He Himself has entrusted us.
This principle applies in our everyday lives with whoever or whatever we may be dealing with. An example could be the rights of the employer in the workplace when he/she entrusts the employees with tasks or assignments. If we purposefully avoid doing these tasks correctly, slack one way or another then we are not fulfilling the employers rights and thus we are disobeying Allah’s commandment in the process.
This specific example can also apply on a larger scale – not doing right by the laws of a country. As Muslims we are put on this world with the right to worship Allah and thus no laws can ever cause us to go against that. However, there are many aspects in life especially in the West that we as Muslims seem to take very lightly. Let’s take finance management as an example.
We all believe that provision is from Allah, yet many of us cut corners in life. Lying on CV’s to get jobs, lying to village councils about our pay in order to take benefits we do not deserve, avoiding tax etc. These are just some examples of betrayal of trusts that we were given by the governments. Regardless of whether a government is Muslim or even true to itself, our fulfilment of these trusts comes down to pleasing Allah.
Another example could also be students. When the parents are paying the student fees or travel and putting in effort for the child to learn and they end up skipping class or not trying to achieve at all. This of course does not include younger children but is also not limited to older students either; teenagers who have reached puberty are as responsible as grown adults and must take heed of this.
A lot of what falls into this principle are usually situations in which we are not being watched over by others. Most cases result in nobody knowing what we are slacking in or what rights we are not fulfilling and we do not get caught. It is in these situations that we are being tested and Allah commands us to do right by those who have entrusted us with something because in the end it is He who is truly the one entrusting us.
This also applies to us saying “yes” to something. If somebody asks us for something or to do something and we agree, then it becomes an obligation because Allah obligated us. If it’s something we know we cannot fulfil then we simply say no – we have to open and honest about things like this.
Then we come to keeping Allah’s trust, the Qur’an and Sunnah – we are the carriers of His book. We all know on an individual level when we are violating Allah’s rules, yet we do it anyway – since He did not create this world with immediate consequence. We do things now that are against Allah’s teachings and we do not always see the repercussions of our actions in this world.
However, let us just imagine the day when Allah will reveal every single right and trust that we violated against Him, He portrays in the Qur’an what the wrongdoers will be proclaiming:
And the record [of deeds] will be placed [open], and you will see the criminals fearful of that within it, and they will say, “Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?” And they will find what they did present [before them]. And your Lord does injustice to no one.
[18:49]
How will we answer to this?
This is not to say that we as humans are created to be perfect. The prophet (ﷺ) says: “All the sons of Adam are sinners, but the best of sinners are those who repent often.” [Tirmidhi]
It is more to keep us weary of that which we do even when nobody can see. A hadith mentioned in Sahih Bukhari narrates a man asking the prophet (ﷺ) what Ihsan (excellence) is in the religion and the prophet (ﷺ) said that it is to worship Allah as if He can see you and if this state of devotion is not achieved, then remember that Allah can indeed see you in any case.
Let us take a step back and analyse the trusts we have been given. Are we truly doing right by them?
May Allah make us of those who fulfil His rights, whether they are personal to Him or through doing right by His people.
Allah knows best.