Trustworthiness (2/3)

His Relations with Others

God’s Messenger was trustworthy and encouraged others to follow his example. Once during the last ten days of Ramadan, his wife Safiyya visited him while he was keeping vigil in the mosque. As he was escorting her home, two Companions happened to pass by. The Messenger stopped them and, unveiling his wife’s face, said: “This is my wife Safiyya.” They said: “God forbid any evil thought about you, O Messenger of God.” The Messenger was warning them against having evil thoughts about him, for that could cause them to lose their faith and enter Hell. He gave them and us a lesson, saying: “Satan continuously circulates within people’s blood vessels.”[1]

God’s Messenger was an embodiment of trustworthiness. His own people, even before his Prophethood, called him al-Amin (the Trustworthy One).  After his declaration, his enemies continued to entrust him with their precious goods.

He warned his people against lying, breaking their word, and breaching their trust.  All of these were condemned as “signs of hypocrisy.”[2] He was so meticulous in this matter that when he saw a woman calls her child, saying: “Come on, I’ll give you some- thing,” he asked her if she was telling the truth.  She replied that she would give him a date, to which God’s Messenger responded: “If you were to give him nothing, you would have lied.”

His concern in this matter extended even to animals. Once, annoyed at seeing a Companion trying to deceive his horse, he said: “Stop deceiving animals.  Instead, be trustworthy with them.”[3]

Another time, while returning from a military campaign, a few Companions took some baby birds from a nest to pet them. The mother bird returned after a short while and, finding her babies gone, began to fly around in distress. When God’s Messenger was informed, he was so upset that he ordered the birds to be returned immediately. Such an order was meant to show that representatives of trustworthiness should harm no living creatures.[4]

Each Companion was an embodiment of trustworthiness. By virtue of this and other laudable virtues, cities and states submitted to Islam. During ‘Umar’s caliphate, Abu ‘Ubayda, the embodiment of justice, commanded the Muslim armies in Syria. When the Byzantine Emperor set out to recapture Hims, Abu ‘Ubayda decided to evacuate the city, for his forces were vastly outnumbered. He had the non-Muslim population assembled and announced: “We collected the protection tax from you because we had to defend you. Since we can’t defend you against the coming Byzantine assault, we are returning the tax we collected.” This was done. Pleased with the Muslim administration, Christian priests and Jewish rabbis flocked to the churches and synagogues to pray that God would cause the Muslim army to be successful.[5]

Such was the attitude of Muslim conquerors and administrators in the lands they ruled. Muslims stayed in Spain for eight centuries. If there were enough Christians left to acquire enough power  to  expel the  Muslims  later  on,  it  was  because  of  the Muslim administration’s religious  tolerance.  Muslim rulers did not interfere with a conquered people’s religion, language, or culture. If they had done so, there would have been no Christians left to recapture Spain, no Jews left to conquer Palestine, and no Christians left in the Balkans to engage in genocide. Nor would Christians have been able to destroy peoples, cultures, and languages on an almost global scale.

Islam emphasizes trustworthiness and security to such an extent that suspicion and gossip are forbidden:

“O you who believe! Avoid much suspicion, for suspicion in some cases is a grave sin. Do not spy on or gossip about one another.  Would one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother?  You would abhor it. Fear God, for verily God is the Acceptor of repentance, the Most Merciful.” (Surah Al-Hujuraat, 49:12)

God’s Messenger was so sensitive on this point that once when ‘A’isha commented: “How long her neck is,” he said: “You have gossiped about her and so ate of her flesh!”[6]

He always prayed: “O God, I seek refuge in You from hunger, for how bad a companion it is! I also seek refuge in You from betrayal, for what an evil confidant it is!”[7] He also had harsh words for those who betray and are disloyal: “When God gathers together on the Day of Judgment all the people preceding and to come, a banner will be raised on behalf of every disloyal person. It will be announced: ‘This is because of the disloyalty of so and so!’”[8]

The heart of God’s Messenger was closed to all evil, but opened to all good. He lived in a climate of security, faithfulness, and trustworthiness. He never cheated, lied, betrayed people, just as he never gossiped about, slandered, or harbored evil suspicion about someone. In return, people relied on him and confided in him. His enemies slandered him, but no one ever accused him of lying and disloyalty. Those who turned their backs on him were deceived and dragged into wrong ways.

God’s Messenger was totally reliable. His trustworthiness had two aspects: his relationship with people and his relationship with God. The former manifested itself as complete reliability; the latter as perfect reliance on God. When combined, these two aspects ensure a peaceful atmosphere of steadfastness and security.

The Qur’an gives several examples concerning the Prophets’ confidence in, and perfect reliance on, God. To cite only a few:

“And recite to them the news of Noah, when he said to his people:  “O my people!  If my stay (with  you)  and  my reminding (you)  of the signs of God is unbearable  to you, then  I put  my trust in God. So come together with your partners and come to an agreement on your plan! Then let not your affair be a worry to you. Pass your sentence on me, and give me no respite.” (Surah Yunus, 10:71)

 [Hud said to his people:] “I call God to witness and bear you witness that I am free from all that you ascribe as partners in worship to God, beside Him. So, plot against me, all of you, and give me no respite.  I put my trust in God, my Lord and your Lord.  There’s not a moving creature but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily my Lord is on a straight path.” (Surah Hud, 11:54-56)

“Indeed there has been an excellent example for you in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people: “Verily we are free from you and from whatever you worship besides God; we have rejected you, and there has arisen between us and you hostility  and hatred  for ever, until  you believe in God  alone,” except Abraham’s saying to his father: “Verily I ask forgiveness (from  God)  for you, but  I have no power  to do anything  for you before God. Our Lord! In you (Alone) we put our trust, and to You (Alone) we return in repentance, and to You (Alone) is our Final Return.””  (Surah Al-Mumtahinah, 60:4)

 (Continued)