Chapter Six: Trusts and Rights — Drawn From Another Source
We say again plainly what we said before: this chapter is not a fifth item in the hadith of al-Tirmidhi quoted above; that one has four, and we add nothing to them. We have set trusts and rights apart because they have evidence of their own from other verses, and we give them under the source they are drawn from and under no other.
An answer book in another man's hand
A candidate in the middle of the row is asked to pass an answer book back to the last seats. It stays in his hand a few seconds; there is not one line of his in it, and his name is not on the cover. The easiest thing for his hand to do is open it, and the safest is to pass it on folded shut, exactly as it was handed to him.
And most of what is in your hand is of that kind: a post you took up, a child laid in your lap, something left with you for safekeeping, and a word said to you on the understanding that it would go no further. Their owners' names are on them and not yours, and you are passing them on, not owning them.
Carrying a trust is in its origin a weight that was offered, and everything but man shrank from it: “Lo! We offered the trust unto the heavens and the earth and the hills, but they shrank from bearing it and were afraid of it. And man assumed it. Lo! he hath proved a tyrant and a fool.” (Al-Ahzaab 33:72, Pickthall)
And giving trusts back to their owners is the plain wording of the command: “Lo! Allah commandeth you that ye restore deposits to their owners, and, if ye judge between mankind, that ye judge justly. Lo! comely is this which Allah admonisheth you. Lo! Allah is ever Hearer, Seer.” (An-Nisaa 4:58, Pickthall)
And a promise is of the same kind, and the man who gave it is answerable for it: “Come not near the wealth of the orphan save with that which is better till he come to strength; and keep the covenant. Lo! of the covenant it will be asked.” (Al-Israa 17:34, Pickthall)
In the hall you see, trusts are kept safe by numbers: a seat number like no other, and a list signed when the papers are handed in, so that if a paper goes missing it is known where the fault lies. In the greater hall nothing goes missing at all, and everything of other people's rights that has passed through your hand is written under its owner's name and not under yours.