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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ethical Discourses: Volume 1 Discourse22: Characteristics of a True Believer – Part VIII Our ethical discussions have based on the tradition from the Noble Prophet (S) to Imam 'Ali (as) in which there are one hundred and three characteristics that a true believer must possess. Previously, we have covered thirty-five of these characteristics and in today's gathering, we will explain six more.

…أَمِيناً عَلى الأَمَانَاتِ، بَعِيداً مِنَ الْخِيَانَاتِ، إِلْفُهُ التُّقّى وَ حِلْفُهُ الْحَيَا، كَثِـيرُ الْحَذَرِ، قَلِيلُ الْزَلَلِ… ”(The true believer is one who) is trustworthy when given something to keep as a trust; is one who is far away from treachery or deceit; his close companion is piety; his associate is modesty; and in the face of dangers, he is always; alert and his misguidedness is little.”[^1] The thirty-sixth characteristic of a true believer is that when one is given a trust, he takes care of it.

This trait plays a very important role in the teachings of the Prophets: “Allah did not raise up a single Prophet except that he spoke the truth and gave back trusts (that were entrusted to him) to either the righteous person or to the wicked sinner.”[^2] The reason why the word “trust” has been mentioned in the plural form in this tradition could be due to the fact that it refers to various types of trusts that one is given to maintain.

The trusts of Allah (SwT) that are with us are many, such as: our life, the period of our youth, our health, faith, religion, children, the country we are living in, etc… and all of these are Divine trusts from Allah (SwT) that we must preserve. If a person's child goes astray or we act in such a way that leads to irrelevancy of the religion of Islam or the teachings of the Ahlul Bait in the eyes of the people, then we have done treachery to the trusts that have been given to us.

Amongst all of the trusts that we have been given, the most important of them is the responsibility and accountability that all of the creations refused to accept and it was only mankind and humanity that accepted it. It is this trust that has such a great status which we must not be negligent of and it is because of this responsibility that when a boy or girl becomes physically mature (Baligh), that we hold programs to celebrate this special occasion.

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