How can there be trust, when the entities are nothing but
the entity of the One appointing the agent, with neither other entity nor trace?
Trust is prescribed, and its prescribed limit is attained. True trust does not occur from created being in its state of existence: it belongs only to the nonexistent in its state of nonexistence.[17] There is no station by which the nonexistent is qualified, and from the standpoint of reality only trust is valid in the existent. The nonexistent remains described by trust until it exists. Once it exists, trust departs from it. This is what is expressed as leaving trust.
(The Two Aspects of Leaving Trust)
I then say: leaving the trust known among the ordinary people of God is valid only for two kinds of person. One knows that it cannot be realized, so refrains from embarking upon it, because he considers it unattainable. He sees that, when hunger pains him and he has something to repel it, he takes it to remove the pain of hunger. There is no difference between him and someone seeking healing recitation or medical treatment, or resorting to a place of safety from frightening matters, while sober and possessing full intellect and complete knowledge. Trust is attained insofar as it is a station, but not attained insofar as its state is concerned. Trust is thus valid and not valid.
The other says: God knows best the welfare of creation and has “given each thing its creation” [20:50]. What place is there for trust after this completion? He leaves trust, for nothing remains for him to rely upon God concerning, since he said, “Your Lord has finished.” Yet he remains
Notes
Translator’s note TN4115-1: The source expressly says both that true trust belongs to the nonexistent before existence and that, from the standpoint of reality, only trust is valid in the existent, before saying that trust departs when existence occurs. The intervening wording is retained without inserting “leaving” to resolve its tension. The original note explains the broader distinction from prescribed trust.
Translator’s note TN4115-2: The unvoweled term al-muwakkil/al-muwakkal in the poem can denote the principal appointing an agent or the one appointed as agent. The first reading is used here; the agency relations of both preceding considerations remain relevant.
