Discover the meaning of the term Amana (أمانة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 4 min readThe opposite of treachery; it is the verbal noun: man was entrusted an amana, he is thus amine when he becomes so. That is its root; then what is entrusted to you was named amana.
Keeping a thing and not disposing of it, whether goods or other, and whether the thing is owned by oneself or another; hence it is wider than the deposit (wadi’a). The Imam Badr ad-Din said: the difference between deposit and amana is that of general and particular: the deposit particular, the amana general.
The opposite of treachery; amana applies to all entrusted to man of legal charges and other, as worship and deposit; of amanas are family and wealth. Examination shows the faqihs used amana in two senses: the thing held by the trustee, and the moral quality.
Among the faqihs: the thing held by a trustee, whether an amana by the contract of keeping as the deposit, or an amana within a contract as the hired and the borrowed, or what enters by way of amana into a man’s hand without contract nor intent, as when wind casts a neighbour’s wealth into one’s court: not being by contract, it is not a deposit but amana only. The root of amana is conformity to right in fulfilling the trust in secret; its contrary is treachery, said ar-Raghib.
The opposite of treachery; in the noble hadith: « no faith in him who has no amana ». Religion; in the noble Quran: « O you who believe, betray not Allah and the Messenger, nor betray your amanas while you know » (al-Anfal 27). Worship. Obedience. Trust. Safety. The shares of inheritance; in the glorious Book: « We offered the amana to the heavens, the earth and the mountains: they refused to bear it and feared it, and man bore it: he is very unjust, very ignorant » (al-Ahzab 72), meaning the imposed shares, or the intent he hides behind the faith he shows by tongue and outward performance of the shares, for Allah charged him with it and disclosed it to none of His creatures: who conceals tawhid as he shows it has fulfilled the amana. The deposit. Among the Hanafis: name of what is not guaranteed; it embraces all forms without guarantee: the loan for use, the hired, the found thing in the finder’s hand, and the like; it differs from the deposit. In the Mejalla (art. 762): the thing held by the trustee, whether amana with intent of keeping as the deposit, or amana within a contract as the hired and borrowed, or what enters by way of amana without contract nor intent, as a neighbour’s wealth cast by wind: not being by contract, it is not a deposit but amana only. Al-amana: safety. He who trusts all. He whom all trust in all things.
﴿إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا ٱلْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَٱلْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا ٱلْإِنسَـٰنُ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ ظَلُومًۭا جَهُولًۭا﴾
« Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant. »
Surah الأحزاب : 72