(58, 59) “Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to those entitled to them and, when you judge between people, to judge with justice. How excellent is that to which Allah exhorts you! Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing. O you who believe, obey Allah, obey the Messenger, and those in authority among you. If you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and best in outcome.”
Trusts comprise everything with which a person is entrusted and which he is commanded to discharge. Allah therefore commands His servants to discharge them fully and completely, without deficiency, diminution, or delay. This includes trusts connected with positions of authority, property, secrets, and duties whose fulfillment is known only to Allah. The jurists have stated that anyone entrusted with something must safeguard it in the kind of secure custody appropriate to it. They said that since it cannot be returned without being safeguarded, safeguarding it is therefore obligatory.
His words, “to those entitled to them,” indicate that a trust must not be handed over or discharged to anyone other than the one who entrusted it, although his agent holds the same status. If it were handed over to anyone other than its owner, it would not have been duly discharged.
“And when you judge between people, to judge with justice.” This encompasses judgment between them in matters of life, property, and honor, whether the matter is small or great and whether it concerns a relative or a stranger, a righteous person or a sinner, a friend or an enemy.
The justice by which Allah commands judgment is the law that Allah has prescribed through His Messenger, including prescribed penalties and rulings. This necessarily requires knowing what justice is so that one may judge by it. Since these commands are excellent and just, He says: “How excellent is that to which Allah exhorts you! Indeed, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” This is praise from Allah for His commands and prohibitions, for they secure the benefits of this world and the Hereafter and avert the harms of both. The One who prescribed them is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing; nothing whatsoever is hidden from Him, and He knows what serves His servants’ interests beyond what they themselves know.
He then commanded obedience to Himself and to His Messenger by complying with what they command, whether obligatory or recommended, and avoiding what they prohibit. He also commanded obedience to those in authority, namely those who govern people: rulers, judges, and muftis. People’s religious and worldly affairs cannot be set aright without obeying and submitting to them, as an act of obedience to Allah and in pursuit of the reward that is with Him. This, however, is conditional upon their not commanding disobedience to Allah. If they do so, no created being may be obeyed in ⦗184⦘ disobedience to the Creator. Perhaps this is why the verb “obey” is omitted before those in authority but repeated before the Messenger. The Messenger commands only that which constitutes obedience to Allah, and whoever obeys him has obeyed Allah. As for those in authority, the command to obey them is conditional upon what they command not involving disobedience.
He then commanded that every matter over which people differ, whether a fundamental or subsidiary matter of religion, be referred to Allah and His Messenger—that is, to Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger. In them lies the decisive resolution of every disputed issue, whether through their explicit wording, their general import, an allusion, an indication, an implied meaning, or a general underlying principle to which similar cases may be analogically referred. This is because religion is founded upon Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger, and faith cannot be sound without them.
Referring matters to them is therefore a condition of faith. Hence He says: “If you believe in Allah and the Last Day.” This indicates that anyone who does not refer disputed matters to them is not truly a believer; rather, he believes in false authority, as mentioned in the following verse. “That”—meaning referring matters to Allah and His Messenger—“is better and best in outcome.” The judgment of Allah and His Messenger is the finest and most just of judgments and the one most conducive to people’s welfare in their religious and worldly affairs and in their ultimate end.