Voluntary Submission
We offered Our trust to the heavens, to the earth, and to the mountains, but they refused the burden, and were afraid to receive it. Man undertook to bear it, but he has proved a sinner and a fool. God will surely punish the hypocrites and the unbelievers, both men and women, but God pardons believing men and believing women. God is Forgiving and Merciful.
(The Quran 33:72-73)
Man and the universe are creations of God. It is required that both of them completely surrender themselves to God. However, there is a difference in the nature of each surrender. Whereas the universe has from the outset been subjected to God’s will, man is required when he reaches the age of reason to submit himself to God of his own free will.
‘Trust’ here relates to free will. Free will is a matter of trust because it is a gift which God has given to man temporarily in order to test whether he will put it to the best use or not. Trust, in other words, is the tacit understanding that the subservience which God exacted from the stars and the planets will be offered to Him by man of his own volition.
In this universe it is only God who is Lord and Sovereign. All other things are His subjects. It was God’s will that a creature should come into being which does what God wants him to do, without any compulsion, of his own free will. This voluntary submission is so subtle a test that even the heavens, the earth, and the mountains cannot bear it. However, man despite great apprehensions of his failing to fulfill the responsibility, accepted it. Now man in this world is the repository of one of God’s trusts. He has to impose on himself what God has imposed on other objects in the universe. He has to rigorously apply the commands of God to himself. Man is in a state of trial and the present world serves as a vast trial ground for him.
This ‘trust’ is an extremely delicate responsibility, for the matter of reward and punishment is based on its fulfillment. Other creatures have no freedom, therefore, in their case, this question does not arise. Man enjoys freedom. That is why his actions must be subject to divine retribution.
