Amanah is the Arabic word for trust or confidence. In Islam, the giver of an article of trust expects the trustee to manage, handle or use it according to the wish of the creator of the trust, and not otherwise. A trustee is expected to manage an entrusted item as directed and it would amount to a breach of the trust if the trustee handles it otherwise. Allah (SWT) states in Qur’an 4:58 “Allah doth command you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due.” Amanah represents our sense of responsibility in our relationship with Allah, and in our relationship with fellow beings. The logic that one is only what he is when no one is watching is symbolic of Amanah.
Perhaps, what most people ordinarily think of Amanah is protecting and preserving someone else’s property. The scope of Amanah, however, goes beyond this concept as it extends to plans, confidences, secrets, knowledge, talents and opportunities. Occasions for respecting and preserving the trust and confidence reposed in us by others occur in our everyday our life. Amanah requires that we put ourselves in others’ positions in all matters of inter-personal relationships. While Amanah requires that there shall be no distinction between our private and public life, the misuse of the natural abilities bestowed on us amounts to a breach of God’s trust in us. Amanah demands that all transactions (economic, political and social) in our relationship with others should be conducted with a genuine sense of probity and fairness.
It’s a breach of Amanah when you give short measure or weight while selling out but take full measure while buying. Allah (SWT) explains in Qur’an 83:1-3 “Woe to those who deal in fraud; those who, when they have to receive by measure from men extract full measure. But when they have to give by measure or weight to men give less than due.” Fraud as used in this verse covers more than commercial dealings. It extends in practical terms to domestic or social matters. It is one-sided selfishness when an individual asks for honour or respect or services, which he is unwilling to give others in similar circumstances. This, in effect, is double injustice.
It is worse in religion and morally wrong when a man asks for mercy or love from Allah when he is unwilling to give same to his fellow men. One should give in full what is due from him whether or not one expects or wishes to receive full consideration from the other side. The sphere of Amanah is actually vast. Amanah is expected to manifest in everything a man does: the way he looks, talks, listens, walks, sleeps, eat, drink, play, judge, read, or write. Many people today breach confidence in order to earn financial, political, or other forms of favours from those who benefit from the breach. It has almost become a survival strategy for most of those that engage in it.
Breaching trust and confidence, which is evil, has its consequences as exemplified in the classical case of the Prophet’s wife. Allah (SWT) reveals in Qur’an 46:3 “When the Prophet disclosed a matter in confidence to one of his consorts, and she divulged it (to another), and Allah made it known to him, he confirmed part of it and repudiated a part. When he told her thereof, she said, “Who told thee this? He said, “The one who knows and is well acquainted (with all things) told me.” There are important lessons we can draw from the incidence narrated in Qur’an 46:3 above in which one of the wives of the Prophet breached the confidence reposed in her by the most trustworthy in human creation, Muhammad (SAW). A trusted person has a responsibility to uphold and preserve every object of trust, tangible as well as intangible, which may include spoken words, written statements, properties, etc. It is worst evil when the breach is perpetrated by a wife, husband, father, mother, son or daughter.
When, as confidants, we are told anything in confidence especially by one who matters a lot in a matter, we must not under any circumstance divulge it to even our closest friend. No matter how we attempt in the most secret manner to whisper to a third party any aspect of what we ought to exclusively keep to ourselves as classified information, Allah’s plan in dealing with dishonest people is that such an act of divulgence shall leak out to the public in order to expose those guilty of a breach of confidence as happened in the case of the Prophet’s wife. Another moral message that could be discerned from the case involving the prophet’s wife is that when the whispered version is compared with the true version, it would be discovered that the greater part of murmured version is untrue due to the inevitable exaggerations and misunderstandings that the whispered version would have passed through. It is a breach of confidence to use or alter parts or the whole of any item entrusted to us. Allah (SWT) asserts in Qur’an 8:27 “O ye that believe! Betray not the trust of God and the Apostle nor misappropriate knowingly things entrusted to you.”
Trust or confidence is complementary to self-discipline. Indeed, indiscipline behind every breach of confidence. With the widespread indiscipline among Nigerians and at all levels of human interaction today, trust is the virtue to search for in citizens. The leadership and followership of the nation are both in critical deficit of reliable and trustworthy individuals. In this wise, therefore, if Nigerians desire trustworthy leaders, they must themselves become trustworthy in the first place, and then, get prepared to disown greed and selfishness in order to become honest preservers of trust. We must all agree also forsake irresponsibility in what we do, say or think.
In Nigeria today, the trustworthy is considered foolish. Many of our collective challenges including corruption at all levels, organized stealing of public funds, supervised injustice and ‘monitored’ insecurity could be blamed on the faulty perception that trustworthiness as a virtue exclusive of the angelic world. May Allah (SWT) guard us against breaching any form of confidence, public or private, amin.
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