The Verse of the Trust
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This article is the view of a Shi'ah regarding The Verse of the Trust.
Allah says:
Surely We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it and were afraid of it; but man undertook it; verily he was unjust, ignorant. (33:72)
A trust is something entrusted to someone (a trustee) to be used or guarded for a period until it is returned to its owner. The trust also implies that the giver of the trust expects that the trustee would use it according to the wish or will of the owner and not otherwise.
In this verse, God offered, through His general mercy, the trust to the heavens, the earth, the mountains and man. While the first three refused to bear the trust, man accepted it.
This trust can be understood from the verse following this one in which God says:
So Allah will punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, and Allah will turn in mercy to the believers, men and women. Allah is forgiving, merciful. (33:73)
The above verse shows that only man has the potential to attain the various attributes like hypocrisy, polytheism and true belief and the punishment for becoming a hypocrite or a polytheist is the consequences of not fulfilling the trust while the reward for becoming a believer is as a result of keeping the trust.
Now since the above mentioned attributes are connected to the religion, therefore we can at least attest at this point that the trust is also connected to the religion.
Before we discern what is the trust mentioned in the verse, we should first ask and answer the following questions:
- Why did the heavens, the earth and the mountains refuse to bear the trust?
- Why did man accept to bear the trust?
The answer to both these questions is inferred from the verse (33:73) quoted above. It is evident from the verse that only human beings face the consequences of being unjust and ignorant and they only can acquire the opposite attributes - namely, those of being just and knowledgeable. Accordingly, only human beings are ready to bear the burden of this trust.
However, this foregoing statement begs another important question. Why did God, the all-Knowing and all-Wise, offer the trust to man while He knows that man was unjust and ignorant? The reply to this question is that the offer was given to man because he has the ability to reform himself from the various defects like injustice and ignorance and the failure to reform is subject to punishment. One thing we can undoubtedly agree at this juncture is that man took the offer to keep the trust because he was ignorant of the consequences of being unfaithful to the trust and thus he was unjust to himself. To understand this better, look at the verses describing the story of Adam and his Garden:
And We said: O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the garden and eat from it a plenteous (food) wherever you wish and do not approach this tree, for then you will be of the unjust. (2:35)
God advised Adam not to approach a particular tree because if he did, he will be unjust to himself. In another verse, describing the same prohibition, the adjective “unjust” is replaced with the clause “put to toil”.
So We said: O Adam! This is an enemy to you and to your wife; therefore let him not drive you both forth from the garden so that you should be put to toil. (20:117)
What we understand from these verses is that if Adam ate from the tree, he would assume an enormous burden of beginning his trials and this is the meaning of the clause “you will be of the unjust”. In the same manner, accepting the trust implies an enormous responsibility to stand by the obligation of guarding it and this is perhaps the meaning of the clause “he was unjust, ignorant” in the verse under discussion.
Having grasped the background of the discussion, we come to the part where we can now discuss the trust itself. Many opinions by various commentators have been presented about the trust and we shall quote and comment on a few:
First opinion: The trust is belief in “Tawheed” i.e. Oneness of God.
Comment: This cannot be accepted because there is not a thing but glorifies God with His praise:
The seven heavens declare His glory and the earth (too), and those who are in them; and there is not a single thing but glorifies Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification; surely He is Forbearing, Forgiving. (17:44)
The heavens, the earth and the mountains all glorify the Oneness of God but we do not perceive their glorification. Therefore it does not make sense that they refused to bear the trust.
Second opinion: The trust is to accept the truth with all its details.
Comment: This also cannot be accepted because the verse says that man undertook it. So how was he able to attain the attributes of hypocrisy and polytheism if he accepted all the truth with its details?
Third opinion: The trust is the responsibility to represent God such that the one who is faithful to it can attain perfection and also put society in perfect order based on the unique comprehension of the religion.
Comment: This explanation of the trust is very interesting and has support in the Qur’an. The trust described makes sense because the heavens, the earth and the mountains are always obedient to God and thus they do not have to attain perfection and perfect their environment. On the other hand, man has the legislative responsibility of being obedient to God and perfecting his environment and maintaining justice. Man assumed the trust because he has the potential of perfecting himself and raising his status higher than that of the angels. By the same token, man also has the potential of corrupting himself and remaining unjust and ignorant and thus attaining a status lower than that of the beasts. The heavens, the earth and the mountains do not possess these potentials of a man. If man did not have to purify his soul, it would imply that he was just and not ignorant and thus it would not make sense for him to accept and bear the trust. The foregoing statements are inferred from the following verses:
And the soul and Him Who made it perfect. Then He inspired it to understand what is right and wrong for it; He will indeed be successful who purifies it, and he will indeed fail who corrupts it. (91:7-10)
Certainly We created man in the best make. Then We render him the lowest of the low. Except those who believe and do good, so they shall have a reward never to be cut off. (95:4-6)
And when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place in the earth a vicegerent, they said: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? He said: Surely I know what you do not know. (2:30)
And when We said to the angels: Make obeisance to Adam they did obeisance, but Iblis (did it not). He refused and he was proud, and he was one of the unbelievers. (2:34)
He said: Get forth you two therefrom, all (of you), one of you (is) enemy to another. So there will surely come to you guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, he shall not go astray nor be unhappy; And whoever turns away from My reminder, his shall be a straitened life, and We will raise him on the day of resurrection, blind. (20:123-124)
[edit] Conclusions
The trust therefore is the responsibility to represent God on the earth and to manifest His attributes. Only human beings having assumed the trust have the potential to attain perfection and perfect their environment. The problem however is that if man was the only creature who accepted the trust why should God say that he was unjust and ignorant? The answer is very logical. If we agree that man has the potential to attain perfection, then how can he not be unjust and ignorant by his nature if that potential existed? This shows that only human beings are ready to bear the burden of this trust and to accept the consequences of not keeping the trust accordingly.
In the verse under discussion, refusal to accept the trust is therefore an expression for not having the potential of perfection while acceptance of the trust is an expression for having the potential of perfection.
In his tafseer al-Mizan, Allameh Tabatabaei says that the trust is in the sense of “wilayah” which is a special favor to humanity entailing enormous responsibility to stand by the obligation of guarding it. Further, the acceptance of this wilayah makes human beings acquire both the responsibility for their actions as well as superiority over all other creatures in the world. It is this wilayah (divine sovereignty) that enables them to put society into order in accordance with their unique comprehension of religion.
Poser: Based on the conclusions drawn, is the wilayah of the Commander of the Faithful, ‘Ali Ibn Abi-Talib a responsibility for humanity to stand by the obligation of guarding it?
Reply: Since the wilayah of ‘Ali Ibn Abi-Talib concerns the management of the affairs of the people in the society such that they can perfect themselves and put their society in order and justice, it is therefore connected to the trust mentioned in the verse. The 6th Imam (a.s.) was asked by someone about this verse and the Imam said: "The trust is the wilayah of 'Ali Ibn Abi Talib" (al-Kafi by Kulayni). The Imam's explanation was based on the principle of the “flow of the Qur’an” and makes it clear that it was also the act of accepting or rejecting the wilayah of Imam 'Ali that determined whether one had been faithful to the divine trust or not.
