Return Your Amanat (Spiritual Trust)

Return Your Amanat (Spiritual Trust)

From teaching of Mawlana Shaykh Hisham as taught by Shaykh Sayed Nurjan Mirahmadi

A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem

I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the rejected one
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

Some are coming for fellowship and community, some are coming for blessings and healing, and some are coming because they sincerely want to reach their reality.

For those who are interested in reaching their reality, in opening the powers of the heart and receiving their spiritual trusts, Mawlana is asking what have you done to earn that? People come to tariqa expecting to receive their amanat, their spiritual trust, but it’s actually the reverse. You have to return your amanat to them for your reality to open; otherwise you were just in this for yourself and what you could get out of it. So Mawlana Shaykh is saying that if you want these realities, what is it that you are doing for Prophet (s)?

When you take your last breath you are going to be witnessing Sayyidina Muhammad (s), but in what condition do you want to meet him? You are putting so much effort and so much focus on your material life, and Mawlana Shaykh is saying, “Don’t live a life where you will be disappointed on that last breath.” It means, when you greet Prophet (s), will it be with glad tidings, with love, with an understanding that I did my best, I prepared my best, and now I can’t wait to run into his loving embrace? – or, will it be with a sense of shame and disappointment, where I believed, but I really didn’t believe because I didn’t do anything to cement my belief, I just left it all up in the air.

The Holy Qur’an describes people on the Day of Judgement who say, “Our Lord! We have now seen and heard, so send us back; we will do right, now we are sure!” (As-Sajdah, 12).

They didn’t fulfill the promise they made on the Day of Promises, and when their souls return to that ocean of light they are filled with remorse. That is why Divine is saying, Ya ayu hallazina amanu aminuu… “O you who believe, believe!” (Surah An-Nisa, 136). It means provide an action to support your belief, and when you give in the way of Prophet (s) you are providing an action which supports your belief.

But there is a difference between giving a gift and returning your trust. Some people wonder why we use the word “trust” to describe giving to the Shaykh, instead of calling it a gift. They are teaching us that at your level of belief you are giving something and thinking it is a gift because there’s a lot of you in that – “I gave you this gift.” But at their level of teaching for us, if you are reaching towards a level of perfection, then it was not yours to give. Take the “you” out of the gift.

إِنَّا عَرَ‌ضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْ‌ضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُ ۖ إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا ٧٢

33:72 – Inna a’radnal amanata ‘alas Samawati wal ardi wal jibali, fa abayna an yahmilnaha wa ashfaqna minha wa hamalaha al Insanu, innahu kana zhaloman jahoola. (Surat Al Ahzab)

“Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.” (The Combined Forces)

Say, “O my Lord! You gave me a trust. You gave me an amanat. You put this trust into my possession and I am returning that trust.” People are coming and saying, “I want all these spiritual realities,” and Divine is replying, “I gave you many trusts and you gave none of them back.”

It means that for us to move towards our trust and our reality, we must return the trust that our Creator has given to us. We’re asking, “O my Lord! Grant us trustworthiness. Grant us to be Rashideen wal Mahdiyeen.” Those who are granted the titles Rashideen wal Mahdiyeen are mature because they are trustworthy servants. 9:111 Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs:..

إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَىٰ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُم بِأَنَّ لَهُمُ الْجَنَّةَ … وَعْدًا عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنجِيلِ وَالْقُرْآنِ وَمَنْ أَوْفَىٰ بِعَهْدِهِ مِنَ اللَّهِ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمُ الَّذِي بَايَعْتُم بِهِ وَذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ
9:111 – ‘Inna Allaha Ashtara Minal Mu’umineena ‘Anfusahum Wa ‘Amwalahum Bi anna Lahum AlJannata, …Wa’dan ‘Alayhi Haqqan fit Tawrati wal Injeeli wal Qur’ani, Wa Man Awfa Bi ‘ahdihi Mina Allahi, Fastabshiro Bi bay’ikum Al Ladhi Baaya’tum Bihi, Wa Dhalika Huwal Fawzul ‘azeem. (Surat At TAwbah)

Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise…[It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. And who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah ? Then rejoice in your Bayat which you have contracted. And it is that which is the great achievement. (The Repentance 9:111)

They gave back the material or physical gifts that were placed in their custody as a trust, and in exchange God gave them their Heavenly trust. If you don`t give your material trust, how can you expect to receive your Heavenly trust? You are holding onto one, and wanting to receive the other, but you cannot receive gifts until you give back your trust.

So then in tariqa, there are three levels of giving. The first level is to think that you are giving something to the Shaykh. The second level is to realize that you are giving in the way of Sayedina Muhammad (s), and the third and highest level is to realize that what you are giving doesn’t actually belong to you. It was given to you as a trust with the understanding that you be a custodian over that trust until the day it was to be returned to its true owner, saying, “O my Lord! What you have made me custodian over I am returning to You. I am returning what was in my trust.” Whether that trust was food, whether it was being of service, a skill we have to offer, or wealth that we can use to provide financial support – whatever it is we are trying to reach towards trustworthiness by giving back our material trust, to receive our heavenly trust.

Everybody’s trust is perfectly balanced by the Creator, and He cannot call you to account for what you don’t have. So some people may say, “Oh, well I don’t have money to give” – but then your trust was not that. Mawlana once explained that everybody has to give a pound of gold. It might be a pound service, a pound food, a pound of actual gold, or a skill that we have – but everyone has something that they promised on the Day of Promises, that “My Lord, when I come to that reality, I would give that. I would give my services. I would give my talents. I would give my abilities. I would give my material wealth. I would give everything for that reality.” So pay attention to how your heart and your hand differ. Your heart wants to give, but your hand is afraid and prevents you from giving, or gives less than what your heart was inspired to give.

Then notice how God takes it from you anyway – an appliance breaks suddenly and has to be fixed, or you get a traffic ticket or some other unexpected expense. Either way that trust must be given back, but to have it taken from you is a much lower level than to give it freely, and if you want to receive your spiritual trusts you must give. Saints are teaching us how to reach God’ satisfaction, and those who reached that reality and who achieved the stations of Rashideen wal Mahdiyeen, they achieved them because they gave everything that came to them. We pray that they inspire us to leave the material world behind and move towards our eternal reality, our real being in that world of light in the presence of Sayedina Muhammad (s), in the presence of all the Prophets and all the saints. Fatiha.

Related Articles by Mawlana Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi:

• Fulfil Your Covenant and Your Allegiance,