Conceptions of Trust in the Qur'an

Abstract

In the Qur'an we find different concepts of trust situated within different ethical discourses. A rather unambiguous ethico-religious discourse of the trust relationship between the believer and God can be seen embodied in conceptions of tawakkul. God is the absolute wakīl, the guardian, trustee or protector. Consequently He is the only holder of an all-encompassing trusteeship, and the normative claim upon the human being is to trust God unconditionally. There are however other, more polyvalent, conceptions of trust. The main discussion in this article evolves around the conceptions of trust as expressed in the polysemic notion of amāna, involving both trust relationships between God and man and inter-human trust relationships. This concept of trust involves both trusting and being trusted, although the strongest and most explicit normative claim put forward is on being trustworthy in terms of social ethics as well as in ethico-religious discourse. However, ‘trusting’ when it comes to fellow human beings is, as we shall see, framed in the Qur'an in less absolute terms, and conditioned by circumstantial factors; the Qur'anic antithesis to social trust is primarily betrayal, ‘khiyāna’, rather than mistrust.

Al amanah in al qur’an vs trust: a comparative study

“…As Eggen said (2011), the individual textual environment of a Qur’anic verse produces a different nuance of meaning. From the context of the related tafsir or the exegesis, a specific meaning is concluded as the hermeneutical effort as Eggen (2011) said. Secondly, the meaning “trust” is analysed based on the reviews and discussions made by a number of scholars and their publications which will lead to its specific meanings.…”

“…Eggen (2011) viewed that the meanings can be categorised under ethico-religious discourse and socio ethical discourse. The first one puts an emphasise on ethical obligation of man to God or “divine ethics” from Izutsu (Eggen, 2011) and refers to the word “ tawakkal .” Based on the tafsir of some Quranic verses, Shihab concluded that the meaning has two components. Firstly, “something has to be done or make an effort earnestly first; secondly, then tawakkal or let God decides the final result” (Shihab, 2013, pp.…”

“…Thus, the second one is more applicable in the context of muamalah . For theses discourses, Eggen (2011) quoted the works of al-Damaghani and Ibnu al-Jawzi that amanah means an obligation to do something.…”

“…62, 65, 66, 74). Specifically, Eggen (2011) viewed that the social ethics in Al Qur’an seems to be relatively the same with those in different geography, ethnicity and religion. Hence, as Jamal B said (Sofiah and Islam, 2015), the word “ amanah ” appears to be equivalent in meaning with the word “trust.”…”

Trust, Trusting and Trustworthiness in Ethical Discourse

“…In this article, I investigate positions on social trust in some works concerned with an ethics of character. My point of departure is the Qurʾānic notion amāna which, as I have argued elsewhere (Eggen 2011;Eggen 2014), pertains to two partly overlapping conceptual fields: the idea of a Divine trust (Q 33:72) and the idea of trust as a socio-ethical value (Q 4:58; 8:27; 23:8; 70:32). The notion of amāna is in this article inscribed into a broader conceptualisation of the ethical values of trust, trusting and trustworthiness, located in the literature in a number of lexical items which constitute a semantic field I identify by the metaterm "trust".…”