All of Verses

The 365 · Verses · Day 225 · Justice


Qur'an 2:283

۞ وَإِن كُنتُمْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍ وَلَمْ تَجِدُوا۟ كَاتِبًا فَرِهَـٰنٌ مَّقْبُوضَةٌ ۖ فَإِنْ أَمِنَ بَعْضُكُم بَعْضًا فَلْيُؤَدِّ ٱلَّذِى ٱؤْتُمِنَ أَمَـٰنَتَهُۥ وَلْيَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ رَبَّهُۥ ۗ وَلَا تَكْتُمُوا۟ ٱلشَّهَـٰدَةَ ۚ وَمَن يَكْتُمْهَا فَإِنَّهُۥٓ ءَاثِمٌ قَلْبُهُۥ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ

If you are on a journey, and cannot find a scribe, something should be handed over as security, but if you decide to trust one another, then let the one who is trusted fulfil his trust; let him be mindful of God, his Lord. Do not conceal evidence: anyone who does so has a sinful heart, and God is fully aware of everything you do. (Quran 2:283)

Svenska: Och om ni är på resa och inte kan finna en skrivare skall pant tagas. Men om någon av er anförtror något till en annan, bör den som har anförtrotts panten väl vårda den och frukta Gud. Och dlj inte vad ni har bevittnat. Den som gör detta har ett syndigt hjärta. (Koranen 2:283)

A reflection to carry

Allah, in mercy, allows an exception to the documentation rule of 2:282. If you are on a journey and no scribe is found, take a security deposit. But if you choose to trust one another without paper, He flips the verse around and addresses the trusted party directly: 'fa-l-yuʾad-di al-ladhī utūmina amānatahu wa-l-yattaqi Allāha rabbahu.' Let the one entrusted deliver the trust and fear his Lord. And then, the cut to the bone: 'wa lā taktumū al-shahādah.' Do not hide evidence. 'Wa man yaktumhā fa-innahu āthimun qalbuhu.' Whoever hides it, his heart is sinful. Allah did not say 'his action is sinful.' He said his HEART is sinful. The hiding of testimony, the withholding of evidence in a dispute, the convenient amnesia when a brother asks 'do you remember the agreement?', is not a clerical sin. It corrupts the qalb itself. Ya akhī, ya ukhtī: every undocumented loan you took on trust is a test. Every time you were a silent witness to an injustice in your family, your office, your masjid, was a test. Allah said: the hiding heart sins. The truth-telling heart heals.

Read the longer reflection

Yā Rabb, You allowed the exception. You did not force every transaction onto paper. You said: if you choose to trust, that is allowed; but then live up to the trust. And You gave the trusted party direct instruction: deliver the amānah, fear your Lord. Ya Allāh, how many amānāt have been placed in my hands that I treated as casual? The brother who lent me money on a handshake; the family member who entrusted me with information; the boss who gave me a responsibility without a contract; the friend who shared a secret without a non-disclosure. Each was a trust, sealed by Your gaze, not by paper. Forgive me for every one I did not deliver as You expected. And ya Rabb, You named the heart that hides testimony. 'Fāthimun qalbuhu.' His heart is sinful. That phrasing terrified me, because the heart is what I bring to You on the Day. You do not weigh my polished sentences; You weigh my qalb. And if my qalb has been hiding testimony (about a wrong I witnessed and stayed silent on, about a deal I knew was unfair and did not name, about a sister wronged in front of me whom I did not stand up for), then my qalb is what is sick, not my actions. Heal it, ya Rabb. Open my mouth to speak truth even when the cost is dear. Open my hand to deliver amānāt even when no one would notice their disappearance. Open my eyes to amānāt I forgot were amānāt: my body, my time, my position, my children, my income, all on loan from You. And on the Day when every concealed testimony will be uncovered, ya Allāh, let me arrive with a clean qalb, an empty hand of withheld evidence, a record of trusts delivered to their rightful owners. Āmīn ya ʿAlīm bi-dhāt al-ṣudūr.

A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.

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