Khutbah Reflections: Lessons from the Prophets: Instilling Trustworthiness and Integrity in One’s Self
The khutbah on 21st December 2012 spoke of learning integrity from the prophets of Allah and also built upon the the quality of “Al-Wafaa” from the previous khutbah.
[divider] Prophet Musa (AS) managed Prophet Syua’ib’s herd for 10 years even though his commitment was only for 8, Prophet Yusuf (AS) volunteered to be the treasurer of Egypt not for fame or fortune but for the benefit of the people and his confidence in his abilities, and Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who was trusted by everyone in his community to safeguard their belongings when they were away even though some of them rejected his prophethood.From these examples, we can tell that there is a sense of responsibility also known as amanah that the prophets had in carrying out their duties and a level of trust from the people who entrusted them with it. If Prophet Musa (AS) wasn’t trustworthy, Prophet Syua’ib (AS) wouldn’t have married off his daughter to him and ask him to manage his herd for even a day let alone 8 years.
If the king of Egypt at the time didn’t think that Prophet Yusuf (AS) was an honest and capable person, would he have entrusted the management of the whole country’s finances to him? What better example of trust is there than ‘Al-Amin’, The Trustworthy, Prophet Muhammad(s)? He was given that title long before his prophethood because of the way he held the trust of people. Even though some of the people of Quraish didn’t believe him when he became a prophet of Allah, at the very least they knew they could trust him to look after their belongings.
It’s not enough to just have the aptitude for a task; we need the proper attitude for it as well. When someone gives us a responsibility, they’re putting their trust in us to do it honestly and well enough to the best of our ability. Trust however, isn’t something that is easily given. I wouldn’t trust just anyone to look after my sister’s pet rabbits if our family is away even if they know how to. Why? It’s because I can’t be sure if he/she would make sure that the rabbits get fed enough or clean their cages when it’s dirty.
I wouldn’t mind letting someone take care of the rabbits even if they don’t know how to if I trust him/her enough though. I could teach him/her and I’d believe he/she would try his/her best to learn and carry out that responsibility.
Trust is built during our daily interactions with people. It starts from the littlest of things and gets bigger and bigger. If I can trust this person enough to take care of my bag during lunch, not go through my things when I’m not looking, help me out with a task and keep my secrets then I’d be more likely to trust this person to take care of my sister’s rabbits.
We’d normally be more carefully when handling bigger responsibilities because of the scale but it’s how we handle the small and seemingly unimportant things that really show our level of integrity.
[divider]Fadhuli Taufek
Fadhuli is an aspiring writer and believes in putting in the time and effort into meaningful causes. He strives to improve himself as a person and as a Muslim.