Keeping Amanas

By Adil James, TMO

The scholar Majed Mahmoud spoke Saturday evening at the Islamic Cultural Association mosque on the importance of keeping trusts in Islam.

Majed was born in Saudi Arabia where he studied the basics of tawheed, fiqh, tafsir, hadith & tajweed for 9 years which was part of the Saudi school curriculum. He immigrated to Canada during high school. He then graduated from the University of Windsor with a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering. Afterwards, Majed graduated from Wayne State University with a master degree in Business Administration. During this period he took over 45 courses with Al-Maghrib Institute, a few courses of tajweed & tafsir with Al-Bayyinah Institute and completed his memorization of the Quran. Majed has also completed a TV series with Huda TV & Peace TV. He currently works as a Mechanical Engineer at Chrysler and is married with two children.
The Islamic Cultural Association (ICA) is a vital part of Michigan’s Muslim community, which previously established the prestigious Huda School and recently purchased a mosque property at 35700 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

The striking issue about the subject of “trusts” in Islam is that it is a central religious issue which touches on so many essential practices of Islam, and with so many references to it in Qur`an and Hadith.
Mr. Mahmoud also touched on many issues during his brief lecture Saturday night.  He explained that there are two things that can help you on the way, “amana and kinship.”  Amana is of two parts, one to Allah and one to people.  Mahmoud emphasized that it is vital to keep good relations with people and with Allah (swt), saying “people with bad manners can’t be religious.”  He also spoke of people who have good manners to people but zero faith, saying there was a hadith predicting such people—who are praised by people and yet have “not an atom’s weight of iman.” 
However, he praised Western non-Muslims who are extremely tolerant of Islam and helpful to Muslims in their practice of Islam, allowing them to pray and to wear their clothing with far less interference than they would face in their own countries.

Another place where “amana” is vital is in relations with neighbors.  Prophet (s) repeated three times that a person has no faith when his neighbors do not feel safe from his harm.  Mahmoud argued that Prophet (s) was sent to improve our manners, and said that if we are practicing Islam our manners must improve—if not then something is wrong.
Another issue that Mahmoud described as a trust is marriage, a “serious amana.”  Culturally, Mahmoud explained that Arabs who attend the weddings of their daughters traditionally say to the groom, “This my daughter is an amana.”

Religious functionaries hold a trust also.  The adhan, Mahmoud explained, is an amana—the muedhdhin must be trustworthy and honest, as required by Prophet (s).  The iman is considered unjust if he prays for himself and not his congregation—in hadith this is described as a betrayal.

Obvious trusts include money or the means by which money are spent.

In order to emphasize the vital nature of the amana, Mahmoud mentioned ahadith saying that it is considered a breach of your trust to your own body if you keep part of it in shade while the other part is in the sun, or if one walks with one foot barefoot and the other in a shoe.

The greatest amana, Mahmoud argued, is your religion—your prayers and also the other requirements.  “We have so many amanas,” he said.  Mahmoud also mentioned that there will be four issues about which people are questioned on the Day of Judgment, including your money, the manner in which you spent your youth, and the manner in which you spent your life—the central question at issue there is how you kept the trust that Allah (swt) put in your hands during this life.

This Saturday’s event was for me an overview of a vital subject, an introduction to a prominent Muslim public speaker, and an introduction to the new mosque of a thriving and growing part of Michigan’s Muslim community.

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