Fulfilling the Trust (Amaanah) - Ustadh Muhammad Tim Humble

Khutbah: Fulfilling the Trust (Amānah)

Opening — Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah

To continue: the best speech is the Book of Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ. And the worst of matters in this religion are the newly invented matters — those things that were not present and practiced during the life of the Prophet ﷺ, nor during the life of his companions. And all of these muḥdathāt — all of these newly invented practices — no matter what name they are given, if they are called bid'atun ḥasanah, or if they are justified by saying "our intention is something good," all of these newly invented things are innovations, and all of them are misguidance, and all misguidance is in the hellfire.

The Amānah: The Trust Placed Upon Us

Today we are going to talk about the topic of al-amānah — of fulfilling the trust that Allah has placed upon us. Allah says to us in Sūrah al-Nisā':

Indeed, Allah commands you — this is an obligation, a command from Allah, an order from Allah — that you fulfil the trusts back to those to whom they are due. That you fulfil the amānah to those people that it is due to.

And the greatest amānah that we have to fulfil in the religion of Islam is this deen that we have been given by Allah. Allah tells us at the end of Sūrah al-Aḥzāb:

Indeed, We offered the amānah to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they refused to take it and they were in fear of it. And then mankind took on this amānah.

What Is This Amānah? — The Scholars' Tafsīr

Ibn 'Abbās رضي الله عنهما was asked: what is this amānah that was offered to the heavens and the earth and the mountains? And he said: it is the obligations of Islam — the obligatory deeds, the farā'iḍ, the obligatory deeds of Islam.

Abu al-'Āliyah رحمه الله was asked about this āyah and he said: this amānah is what Allah commanded you to do and what Allah forbade you from doing.

And al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī رحمه الله was asked about this āyah and he said: it is the religion of Islam. And this is the most complete tafsīr of the word amānah in the āyah.

And it is as Shaykh Muḥammad Amīn al-Shinqīṭī رحمه الله said: this amānah was a real amānah that was offered. It was not a story or a parable or a tale. Allah offered the amānah in reality to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they refused it. And they did not refuse it in the way that Iblīs refused to bow to Ādam. But they refused it out of a fear of the weight of the responsibility of carrying this religion of Islam — this religion whose weight is so heavy and whose amānah is so great in the sight of Allah — that the heavens and the earth and the mountains refused, out of a fear of Allah, to carry this amānah.

And this amānah, as al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī رحمه الله said, is the religion of Islam.

The Acts of Worship as Amānah

So your prayer is an amānah from Allah. It is a trust that you have been given to fulfil — either you will fulfil it or you will not fulfil it. And it is a trust you will be asked about on the Day of Judgement.

And your zakāh is an amānah that Allah has given you in your wealth — either you will fulfil it or you will not fulfil it. And you will be asked about whether you fulfilled it on the Day of Judgement.

And your fasting is an amānah from Allah, and you will be asked about whether you fulfil it or whether you do not fulfil it on the Day of Judgement. And likewise the ḥajj is an amānah from Allah — did you fulfil it at the earliest opportunity? Did you perform it in the proper way? All of these things are amānah from Allah. And Allah commands you that you fulfil the amānah back to those who gave you this responsibility.

Acting Upon Knowledge

I want to look at a couple of things, even though the whole of the religion of Islam is an amānah — a trust from Allah that you have to fulfil.

The first thing is whether or not we act upon our knowledge. This is from the greatest amānāt in the religion of Islam — from the greatest of the trusts that we have to fulfil — is whether or not we act upon what we know.

Alḥamdulillāh, we have a masjid which is full of people — people who attend the jumu'ah regularly, people who attend the durūs and the lessons and the lectures regularly, and they attend the conferences regularly. We are people who know enough about Islam to practise it. We know a lot about Islam relatively, when you look at the state of the Muslims in this country. But the question is: how much do we act upon it?

This is the amānah that Allah has put upon your neck. This is the amānah that Allah is going to ask you about. Your feet will not move on the Day of Judgement until Allah asks you about the knowledge that you have and asks you about whether you have implemented it or not.

So the question is not just about how much you know about Islam, but how much do you practise what you know. And so this is an opportunity for myself and for you to look at yourself and to take yourself to account. Because — wallāhi — you will not enter Jannah according to the amount of knowledge that you have. But Allah will ask you about what you acted upon. Because knowledge that you act upon is a blessing and a means to earn Allah's mercy, and knowledge that you do not act upon is a punishment and a means to earn Allah's anger.

The Amānah Towards Non-Muslims

In the religion of Islam, look at the importance that Islam gives to these farā'iḍ — the fact that Ibn 'Abbās declared these obligatory deeds to be this amānah that was offered to the heavens and the earth.

But it's not just about those obligatory deeds as well. Even in the way that we deal with people, the religion of Islam is an amānah. We are living in a country of non-Muslims — non-Muslims who don't judge Islam by the quality of your prayer, and they don't judge Islam by how much zakāh you give, and they don't judge Islam by whether you fast. But they judge Islam by how you deal with them, and they judge Islam by how you present Islam to them.

So one of the greatest amānāt, the greatest trusts and the greatest responsibilities that you have in this deen of Islam, in this country, is to present the religion of Islam to those people who don't know about it. And you don't just present it with what you say, but you present it with what you do.

So when you go out in the street and when you treat a non-Muslim inappropriately, or when you cause them difficulty, it's not you that gets blamed — it's the religion of Islam that gets blamed. And so the amānah that is upon you now, when the religion of Islam is being attacked every single day and every single night by the enemies of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, is to give a good impression of the religion of Islam to people — to treat non-Muslims in a good way.

Maybe we think about the amānāt that we are given from the Muslims. And maybe if a Muslim gives you wealth, you fear Allah regarding this amānah, and you keep hold of it and you don't waste that wealth, and you don't give that wealth away and you don't let it be lost — because you fear this amānah. But maybe when a non-Muslim is involved, you don't fear the amānah in the same way. And yet maybe this amānah may be greater in the sight of Allah — because perhaps that Muslim will overlook this amānah and say that it is simply a fault of one of my Muslim brothers, but perhaps that non-Muslim will be prevented from entering Islam because of the way that you deal with him.

So one of the greatest amānāt and the greatest trusts in Islam is that you give a good impression of Islam to those people who don't know about it, and not only that but you deal with them in a good and a trustworthy and an honest way.

How many Muslims do we see that when it comes to their Muslim brother, they will not cheat him and they will not abuse him, but when it comes to the non-Muslim, they don't fear Allah with regard to doing so? And so they follow the ways of the Jews who said — and this is what Allah tells us about them in the Quran — it doesn't matter what we do to the people who aren't Jewish, as long as we look after the Jewish brothers, we will be fine. They looked to their own people and said: as long as we treat our own people well, it doesn't matter what we do to other people. And we as Muslims, we don't look at things in this way.

So we take this amānah of the religion of Islam to include the way that we deal with our non-Muslim people who are out on the street — the way that we deal with them, the way that we talk to them, the way that we do business with them. And we show our amānah, because this fulfilling of the amānah is something which has guided many, many people to Islam. And there are many stories of people who were guided to Islam by the good dealings of the Prophet ﷺ and the Ṣaḥābah and those who came after them. So in following the guidance of our Messenger ﷺ, we need to be aware that this amānah does not just apply to our prayer, and it does not just apply to our zakāh, and it does not just apply to our fasting, but this amānah applies as well to the way that we deal with non-Muslims.

The Amānah at Work

From the other forms of amānah that are related to the religion of Islam and related to the way that we deal with people is for us to consider our amānah when we are at work.

How many of us go to work and we waste our time, and we waste the time of our employer, and then we wonder why Allah doesn't put any barakah in our wealth? Or we go and we don't care about how we spend the money of our employer, or we don't care about how we spend our time, or we don't care about whether we do our job properly or we don't do our job properly. This is from the amānah that Allah commands you to fulfil, from the trusts that Allah commands you to fulfil.

And the best ways to get barakah in your wealth is to fulfil the amānah that you have at work. So when you are at work, it is not a time for you to be on your phone chatting to your friends, and it's not a time for you to waste your time and to waste your employer's wealth that he gives you. But it's a time for you to look at what you do at work and to fulfil that responsibility.

And this applies whether your work is paid or voluntary. There are many brothers and sisters in the masjid who are involved in voluntary work. It is up to you whether you fulfil that amānah or not. If you fulfil that amānah, Allah will give you barakah and will increase you in barakah and will increase you in good. But if you lose this amānah and you let it go, then you risk losing your rizq — losing your provision — and losing much of the barakah that Allah puts into your life.

The Scope of the Amānah

So the thing today that we want to look at is that the religion of Islam is an amānah in the ibādāt — in the acts of worship — and the religion of Islam is an amānah in the mu'āmalāt — in the way that we deal with people. So our employment is an amānah, and the money that we are given to look after is an amānah, and our children are an amānah.

Even our body is an amānah from Allah. Even the body that we have been given is an amānah from Allah. So we are not allowed to do something that is going to bring harm to it, or something that is going to cause it to be weakened, or something that is going to cause it to be lost without any benefit — like, for example, smoking. This is another example of how people lose the amānah that Allah has given them. Allah has given you a trust in your body — whether you are going to fulfil it or whether you are not going to fulfil it.

So the religion of Islam as a whole, from the beginning to the end, is a trust. And Allah has commanded you that you fulfil the trust to those whom it is due.

So the first thing that you need to look at is to look at the practising of your religion — whether you are fulfilling that amānah between you and Allah. And then look at whether you are fulfilling the amānah between you and your Muslim brothers. And then look at whether you are fulfilling the amānah between you and the non-Muslims that are around you — that you work with, that you go to school with, that you go to university with, and so on and so forth.

When we see the weight of this amānah, we see why it is that the heavens and the earth and the mountains refused to carry it. And why it is that Allah describes the one who fails to do so as being in a state of oppressing himself and a state of constant ignorance and oppression. This is the situation of the one who is not fulfilling this trust that is due to them — this huge responsibility that Allah has given them: the responsibility of the acts of worship in Islam and the responsibility in the way that we deal with people within the religion of Islam.

I say this and I ask Allah for forgiveness for me and for you and for the rest of the Muslims from every sin. So ask His forgiveness and He will forgive you — indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Part of the Khuṭbah

Praise be to Allah alone, and we pray and we send peace upon the one after whom there is no prophet — and upon his family and companions.

We are talking about the statement of Allah:

Indeed, Allah commands you that you should render the trusts to those to whom they are due — that you should render the amānah, give the amānah to those to whom it is due.

And in the first part of the khuṭbah we explained that this amānah is not just the money that you are given to look after for somebody or that you have to pay back. This amānah encompasses the whole of the religion of Islam — the acts of worship and the acts that relate to the dealings between you and your fellow human beings. It relates to the way that you deal with Muslims, and it relates to the way that you deal with non-Muslims. It is a means for calling people to the religion of Islam by fulfilling the trust that you have been given. And it is a means for you to enter paradise — with the permission of Allah — through fulfilling the trust that Allah has given you: to practise the obligatory deeds and then the optional deeds of Islam.

And it is as al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī said: this amānah is the entire religion of Islam. It is so heavy that the heavens and the earth and the mountains refused it — not like Iblīs refused to bow to Ādam, but a refusal that came out of the fear of Allah, because of how heavy this responsibility is.

The Warning for Those Who Neglect the Amānah

Many of us go through our lives and we don't see the weight of the responsibility of Islam upon us. And yet Allah has told us in the Quran that if we don't fulfil this responsibility, He will bring another people who will fulfil it instead.

None of us are guaranteed a place in Jannah. None of us are guaranteed that Allah will be pleased with us when we die. The only way that we can strive to achieve this is by striving to fulfil this amānah of the religion of Islam that Allah has given us.

The Sign of the Hypocrite

When we add to this the statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — when he described the characteristics of the munāfiq, and he described those things that if they are found in somebody that person is a munāfiq, a hypocrite — somebody who conceals disbelief on the inside and shows Islam on the outside — one of those characteristics is that when this person is given a trust, when they are given an amānah, they let that amānah go; they don't fulfil it, they don't render it to who it is due.

(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Hadith 33; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 211)

And if we take this amānah to be the whole religion of Islam, then they don't fulfil the religion of Islam — they don't fulfil the obligations that Ibn 'Abbās talked about, they don't fulfil the commands and the prohibitions that Abu al-'Āliyah made tafsīr of the āyah about, they don't fulfil the religion of Islam that Allah commanded you to fulfil. So one of the greatest signs of the munāfiq is that when he is trusted to do something, he doesn't do it.

How many times do we make promises? How many times do we take trust on board? How many times do we take wealth or we take responsibility and we pile this responsibility upon our shoulders and we don't think anything of it? This responsibility is a huge responsibility — a responsibility towards Allah and a responsibility towards our fellow Muslims and a responsibility towards others as well.

Muḥāsabat al-Nafs — Taking Yourself to Account

So now every single person needs to take the chance — and this I'm saying to myself before I say it to you — every single person needs to take the chance to do a bit of muḥāsabat al-nafs, to take their own soul to account. To look at all of the responsibilities that they have — to look at their responsibilities in their ibādāt, in their worship. To ask themselves about their prayer. To ask themselves about their zakāh. To ask themselves about their fasting. To ask themselves about their ḥajj. To ask themselves about all of the other ibādāt in Islam.

And then they need to take some time to look at the way that they deal with people — to look at their families, the way they deal with their families, to look at the way they deal with their children and whether they are fulfilling the responsibility, the amānah that Allah has given them to raise those children properly. They need to look at their work and whether they're fulfilling the amānah at work. They need to look at the individual responsibilities that they have been given — whether somebody has given wealth to them, or somebody has given a responsibility or a trust to them — are they fulfilling it or not?

Yā ikhwānī fillāh, you have a chance. We all have a chance to rectify the amānah that we have not fulfilled. But that chance only lasts as long as Allah gives us respite on this earth. And there will come a time when Allah takes your soul and my soul. And after this time, Allah will not accept your argumentation about whether you fulfilled this amānah or you didn't fulfil it.

Allah will not accept it from you — except by taking your good deeds or by putting somebody's evil deeds upon you, if it is an amānah between you and one of your fellow human beings. And if it is an amānah between you and Allah, then this is under the mercy of Allah — and if He wills, He will overlook it, and if He wills, He will punish you for not fulfilling it.

So everybody needs to look at all of the different responsibilities they've been given, and they need to look at whether they are fulfilling them or not. And whatever you find that you are not fulfilling — whether it is in your worship between you and Allah, or whether it is between you and your fellow human beings — you fulfil it, and you seek forgiveness for it, and you change it today, before the time comes when it will not be accepted from you.

This is a reminder for all of us that we have huge responsibilities — responsibilities that were so great that the heavens and the earth and the mountains refused to carry them. So now we have been given it. The question is: are we going to fulfil those responsibilities or not? We all have an opportunity to do so, and we can only seek the help of Allah and ask Allah to make us from those who fulfil our trusts — between us and Allah and between us and our fellow human beings — and those whom, when we fall short, make up for those things before the time comes when we have no opportunity to do so.

Du'ā'

O Allah, rectify for us our religion which is the safeguard of our affairs, and rectify for us our worldly life in which is our livelihood, and rectify for us our Hereafter to which is our return, and make life an increase for us in every good, and make death a rest for us from every evil.

Indeed, Allah commands justice, and the doing of good, and giving to relatives; and He forbids indecency, and evil, and oppression. He admonishes you so that you may take heed.

So remember Allah, the Most Great, the Most Majestic — He will remember you. And be grateful to Him for His blessings — He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing. And Allah knows what you do. And establish the prayer.

Iqāmah and Ṣalāh

Straighten your rows and close the gaps. Make sure that everyone is moved as far forward as they can. Make sure all the rows are filled to the ends, and that your feet are together and your shoulders are together and your rows are straight.