Al-Wakîl: The Trustee

"...for us Allah suffices and He is the best Trustee (Al-Wakîl )" (3:173).

The Trustee is the quality to which things have been entrusted. There are two kinds of trustees: one to whom some things are entrusted and one to whom everything is entrusted. The first is deficient and the second pertains to Allah alone. Those who are entrusted with things are classified, as those who are worthy, not by virtue of themselves, but by virtue of their appointment as an agent and their delegation to that position. Such a person is deficient in view of the fact that they have to be appointed or delegated. Secondly, those who by virtue of their essence are worthy of having all matters entrusted to them and having all hearts place reliance upon them, not by virtue of an appointment and a delegation coming from one other than them. This is the absolute Trustee. A trustee may be either those who carry out perfectly and without any shortcomings that which is entrusted to them or those who do not carry out everything perfectly. The absolute Trustee is Allah's quality to which matters are entrusted, which is conscientious in dealing with them, and which is faithful in carrying them out. That one is Allah alone.