This Trust that humanity carries
April 9, 2015
But Allaah does not leave us in sin and foolishness. Out of our physical life comes companionship, families, and a thousand familiar friendships. If this Trust that humanity carries also produces friendships and knowledge, what is so strange in that? What rises from a person after death? Look in their secret heart. Their secret heart is like the root of a tree -- although hidden, its influence appears in the leaves and branches. If a branch or two is broken when the root is whole, they will grow again, but if the root is damaged, neither bough nor leaf remains....
We must test our friends, so that in the end we have no cause for regret. Here is another of Allaah’s rules: “Begin with yourself.” If you claim to be humble and serve Allaah, do not accept this claim without testing it. When people wash, first they lift some water to their nose and then they taste it. Simply looking at the water is not enough, for water may have the appearance of purity, but its taste and smell will prove if it is infected. Once the test is done, then they wash their faces.
(adapted from Fihi Ma Fihi,
translated by A.J. Arberry, p. 338 - 339)
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This Trust that humanity carries is a reference to the following verse of the Qur’aan:
We [the Absolute] did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof. But humanity undertook it; indeed, humanity proved to be unjust and foolish.
(Surah 33 Al-Ahzaab, Verse 72)
At the heart of Islam (surrender to the Beloved), the heart of spirituality is a call to Trust the Beloved and allow this Trust to the be root from which the whole of our lives emanates -- in this world and beyond.
When we talk about trust, we’re talking about reliance on the strength and capability of something other than one’s “self.” In traditional Islam, this doesn’t mean a complete abdication of self-effort; instead that our self-effort be secondary to reliance on the Beloved and strictly guided by that. Note these two passages from Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi’s Masnavi i Ma’navi (adapted from translation by E.H. Whinfield):
If ye really have trust in Allaah, exert yourselves,
And strive, in constant reliance on the Almighty. (p. 31)
[The enlightened sage] said, “True; but though trust be our mainstay,
Yet the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) teaches us to have regard to means.
The Prophet cried with a loud voice,
‘Trust in Allaah, yet tie the camel’s leg.’” (p. 28)
The acceptance of the duty to Trust is a great responsibility. This entails receiving a power that we are encouraged to restrain (surrender) to the guidance of the Beloved. As the above verse from the Qur’aan states the Heavens, Earth, and Mountains refused to accept this duty knowing the challenges entailed: that with this power come formidable temptations to ignore divine guidance and wield this power in one’s own way, namely in pursuit of desires. But each human, in accepting incarnation into a body, accepted the duty to Trust and the dual blessing / danger of free will and self-effort this duty encompasses. Thus, humanity has “indeed proved to be unjust and foolish” by failing to refrain from misusing these blessings, by failing to “Trust in Allaah, yet tie the camel’s leg.”
We literally betray this Trust when we seek to dictate our “lives” on our own ego-based terms through the power of our self-effort, regardless the intention of such efforts. This is at the root of so much sin and foolishness, outcomes that can manifest even when we exert our free will and self-effort toward “spiritual” and “beneficial” goals. Jalaal ud-Diin Rumi warns: “But because you put your trust in your own plans, losing sight of Allaah, and forgetting that all things proceed from Allaah, all your intentions have turned out the opposite.” (Fihi p. 9 - 10) If this disharmony with the duty of Trust is at the root of our lives, from this root will emanate stems, branches, fruits and flowers of the same nature. And the calculation of free will and self- effort when under the “reign” of the ego can be very clever and discreet and, thus, be deceptive. Jalaal ud-Diin cautions: “So do not put your trust in every idea and every notion, but only in Allaah and Its wisdom.” (Fihi p. 9) This is a call to move from the level of the mind to the depth of heart (wherein the Beloved dwells) being the determining force of the course