أَمَانَةٌ
Root: امن
Full Definition
2 Trustiness; trustworthiness; trustfulness; faithfulness; fidelity; as also . أَمَانَةُ اللّٰهِ [for أَمَانَةُ اللّٰهِ قَسَمِي or مَا أُقْسِمُ The faithfulness of God is my oath or that by which I swear] is composed of an Verbal.Noun prefixed to the agent, and the former is in the nom. case as an inchoative; the phrase being like لَعَمْرُ اللّٰهِ, as meaning an oath; and the enunciative being suppressed, and meant to be understood: accord. to some, you say, أَمَانَةَ اللّٰهِ [app. for نَشَدْتُكَ أَمَانَةَ اللّٰهِ I adjure thee, or conjure thee, by the faithfulness of God, or the like], making it to be governed in the accus. case by the verb which is to be understood: and some correctly say, وَأَمَانَةِ اللّٰهِ [By the faithfulness of God], with the و which denotes an oath: or this last is an oath accord. to Aboo-Haneefeh; but Esh-Sháfi'ee does not reckon it as such: and it is forbidden in a trad. to swear by الأَمَانَة; app. because it is not one of the names of God. [Or these phrases may have been used, in the manner of an oath, agreeably with explanations here following.]
def.2 A thing committed to the trust and care of a person; a trust; a deposite; and the like: property committed to trust and care: pl. أَمَانَاتٌ. It is said in the Kur [viii. 27], وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ [Nor be ye unfaithful to the trusts committed to you]. And in the same [xxxiii. 72], إِنَّا عَرَضْنَاالأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السّموَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِوَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَنْ يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنْسَانُ [Verily we proposed, or offered, the trust which we have committed to man to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they refused to take it upon themselves, or to accept it, and they feared it, but man took it upon himself, or accepted it: or, (accord. to another explanation of Bd, also given in the T, and in the K in art. حمل, &c.,) they refused to be unfaithful to it, and they feared it, but man was unfaithful to it: but in explaining what this trust was, authors greatly differ: accord. to some,] الامانة here means obedience; so called because the rendering thereof is incumbent: or the obedience which includes that which is natural and that which depends upon the will: [for] it is said that when God created these [celestial and terrestrial] bodies, He created in them understanding: or it may here [and in some other instances] mean reason, or intellect: [and the faculty of volition: and app. conscience: these being trusts committed to us by God, to be faithfully employed: (see an ex. voce جَذْرٌ:)] and the imposition of a task or duty or of tasks or duties [app. combined with reason or intellect, which is necessary for the performance thereof]: or it here means prayers and other duties for the performance of which there is recompense and for the neglect of which there is punishment: or, accord. to I'Ab and Sa'eed Ibn-Jubeyr, the obligatory statutes which God has imposed upon his servants: or, accord. to Ibn-'Omar, [the choice between] obedience and disobedience was offered to Adam, and he was informed of the recompense of obedience and the punishment of disobedience: but, in my opinion, he says, it here means the intention which one holds in the heart, with respect to the belief which he professes with the tongue, and with respect to all the obligatory statutes which he externally fulfils; because God has confided to him power over it, and not manifested it to any [other] of his creatures, so that he who conceives in his mind, with respect to the acknowledgment of the unity of God, and with respect to belief [in general], the like of that which he professes, he fulfils the امانة [or trust], and he who conceives in his mind disbelief while he professes belief with the tongue is unfaithful thereto, and every one who is unfaithful to that which is confided to him is [termed] حَامِلٌ, or حَامِلُ الأَمَانَةِ, and مُحْتَمِلُهَا: and by الإِنْسَانُ is here meant the doubting disbeliever.
2 Also, [as being a trust committed to him by God, A man's] family, or household; syn. أَهْلٌ.
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