Trust

You know, humans have to learn who they can trust.

Babies trust in their parents to feed them

and keep them warm and comfortable enough to survive.

That trust has to be total, and the baby has no alternative.

Then, as it plays with its parents, a baby grows to learn that everything isn't always as it seems.

That growling monster reaching out with sharp claws

can be a fluffy bear about to tickle.

But they also have to know that the pretty flickering light of a fire will burn them if they try to touch it.

That fluffy bear about to tickle can turn out to be a growling monster with sharp claws.

And as they learn by their mistakes,

the older they get, the more mistakes they will have had to learn from.

So babies have to trust more than little kids,

and kids have to trust more than grown-ups,

and as they all grow older they decide for themselves who and what they want to believe.

Getting to decide who and what they believe

is one of the things that go with being human,

deciding what they think is true and what is not.

So it's really important,

because if what we think is true is actually not true,

then it will be hard for any plans to succeed.

But if everyone decides for themselves, how can they ever agree on what is the truth?

They can't.

They can agree on some things sometimes,

but the world they live in is too big, too complicated and too subtle for them to ever be able to understand even a tiny part of it.

All we can know is that God is the Truth.

And of course, if we can't trust what we've worked out for ourselves to be true,

what chance is there of our being able to trust other people

when we are trying to decide what is best for us to do.

And we worry and are afraid of what is going to happen to us in the future,

and feel that no-one can help.

And to deal with that we need to learn to trust in God,

the only One

[Hu] knows, makes and shapes, what is our future.

We need to learn that just as babies are at the mercy of their parents

and trust them with their lives,

so all our lives are held in the Mercy of God.

We need to know that God will look after us,

but that doesn't mean that everything is going to be easy.

On the journey from life to death it is impossible for humans to avoid pain,

as it is a part of what makes them human,

along with pleasure.

So when those hard times come, they need to know they can trust

that God will not give them any problems they are not strong enough to deal with.

And to know that out of hardship comes ease.

And the Arabic word for this Trust in Allah is

"Tawakkul".