subject to punishment and damnation:
Whoever will follow My guidance need have no fear, nor shall they grieve. But those who refuse to accept this (guidance) and reject Our Signs as false are destined for the Fire where they shall abide forever.
[al-Baqarah 2: 38-39]
Agents or a trustees are neither free to act according to their free will in terms of the principal’s material and human resources, nor are they free of accountability for their actions. In fact, an agent is fully answerable before his principal who may not only seek an explanation from him about any and every one of his actions regarding the utilization of physical assets and treatment of human resources, but may also hold him responsible for any credits or debits in the matters entrusted to him and then reward or punish him accordingly.
The first duty of the subordinate representative is to fully accept the complete sovereignty and superiority of the principal whom s/he represents. If s/he fails to do so, then it is apparent that s/he has not understood the basis of her/his status as a subordinate, nor has s/he been able to internalize the correct conceptual framework of being a trustee, cognizant of the responsibility and accountability that s/he owes to the Trust-giver. Thus, finally s/he would simply render her/himself incapable of carrying out her/his duties in the appropriate way.
First and foremost, it is simply not possible for any human being to adopt an attitude compliant with the mission of upholding a trust without then fully developing and achieving the necessary state of mind required for becoming a trustee. Even if, for argument’s sake, a person claims to have upheld his trusteeship while having declined to accept the master’s dominion, the very fact of refusal is enough to denigrate the value of his actions. If the person has carried out ethically superior actions, whether by following an internal sense of uprightness or through the guidance of any other power source, the reward for the same can only be sought from the force or authority whose orders he has carried out. Such actions cannot earn any reward from a principal who has not been a party to his actions.
As regards his origin, man is a lowly creature. The approbation that he has acquired is merely on account of his having been the recipient of the Divine Spirit blown unto him and his having been granted the status of God’s vicegerency. The preservation of that status is contingent upon his refusal to accept Satan’s guidance for that can only corrupt his spirit and degrade him from the high status of a Divine trustee to one of a renegade who shall once again be reduced to his original lowly state.
While the angelic forces have accepted man’s status as God’s temporal representative, it is the Satanic forces that question this relationship and openly avow to challenge it by making man one of their own: a supporter and an associate. If man were to carry out his duties as God’s representative faithfully and follow Divine guidelines well, the angelic forces would support him. Indeed, he would not find the angels at odds with himself and would be able to defeat Satanic forces with the help of what one may – in the absence of a better term – call the ‘angelic troops’. However, were man to fail in his duties as God’s representative on earth and not follow the given guidelines, he would find himself deprived of the angelic force’s support – simply because by that time he himself would have abandoned his mission. And when man finds himself without the help and support of such other Divine forces, he will be relegated back to the mere lump of clay that he essentially is. In this state he would easily be overcome by Satanic forces. Thereupon, only Satan and his supporters would be his allies and he would be forced to follow them.
By virtue of being God’s vicegerent, man’s status is superior to and above everything else in the universe. Everything in the material world has been made subordinate to him and exists so that he may put these to use according to the manner that his Master has taught. Man submitting to such subordinate entities is, therefore, a matter of disgrace. If he does so, this amounts to subjecting himself to injustice (ẓulm). Moreover, by so doing he voluntarily abdicates from the high status of God’s trusteeship.
There is but one Being whose commands human beings must obey. It is only before this Supreme Being that they may supplicate. Prostrating before this Being and this Being alone is an honour for humankind. Who is this Being? Naturally, the Lord Who is man’s Creator and Master.
No one particular person or group can exclusively claim to be God’s representative. Rather, this honour has been bestowed upon humanity as a whole. By virtue of being God’s trustee, every human being is equal to all others. Thus, it is not becoming of any human being to bow before another, nor is it rightful for any human to demand that another human prostrate in submission before him. The only thing that one human being may demand from another of his kind is the obligation to follows the writ and guidance of their common Lord. In this context, a person who follows the Lord’s writ is superior to the one who does not accept the Divine dictates just as the trustworthy person who fulfills his trusts is better than a person who does not. Yet this superiority cannot be interpreted to mean that the better human being has become or can become the master of the others. The status of true representation and trusteeship is available to every human being in his own personal capacity. This is not a responsibility that may be held collectively. Every individual is personally answerable in respect of his status as God’s representative. Just as no responsibility accrues upon one person for actions of others, no benefit may be reaped by one person on account of someone else’s actions. No human being can allow another to relinquish his responsibilities. Nor can the burden of actions of one person be placed upon another.
For as long as human beings live upon earth and until the time that there remains any connection between what would otherwise be inert masses of clay and the Spirit that God has blown into them, they shall remain God’s trustees and representatives. Man loses the honour of enjoying the stature of temporal high office as soon as the connection between body and spirit is severed. It is, therefore, appropriate that his record from the period that he was a Divine trustee be examined with a view to accounting for the trust with which he was entrusted. It must be investigated as to how successfully he carried out duties assigned to him as a subordinate. If he was guilty of any embezzlement, dishonesty, insubordination, or dereliction of duty he must be punished. On the contrary, if he acted with honesty, devotion, and conduct in becoming a trustee, he should be duly rewarded.
Arising directly from the very conceptual basis of the terms ‘trustee’ and ‘representative’ is an important feature of the relationship between the ‘principal’ and the ‘agent’. The true merit of a representative lies in his making efforts to fully protect and improve the assets of the principal. In fact, as far as possible, the representative should display the same manner of thought and action that the true owner is likely to possess and demonstrate. If a king were to appoint a deputy to look after his subjects, the only befitting manner in which the appointee should discharge his duties would be one that emulates the king’s own conduct. He should keep himself informed of subjects’ welfare and dispense the same thoughtfulness, kindness, protection, justice, and when required disciplining, as done by the king himself. Similarly, he should deal with the king’s properties and affairs with the same wisdom, pragmatism and care as is expected of the king himself.
Thus, when man has been made God’s Vicegerent, this means that man can only do full justice to the duty of guardianship if he treats God’s subjects in the same way as God is expected to. This means that the human representative should look after God’s creatures with the same grace and benevolence as the Lord does – naturally, keeping in view human limitations and the extent of resources that God may have placed at his disposal.
God’s human representatives should display the same mercy and benevolence, dispense the same justice, and act with similar restraint even when manifesting annoyance or letting loose their fury over God’s creatures as God Himself does and can be expected to. In short, those
