The Inheritor - Al-Wārith

Al-Wārith, The Heir, The Inheritor of All

God Almighty is the Inheritor, who remains after all is gone. Imam Al-Ghazali, may God have mercy on him, states that God Almighty is the one to whom possessions return after the owner passes, as He is the One who remains, so everything returns to Him. God says in the Qur'an: “The Day they come forth nothing concerning them will be concealed from God. To whom belongs [all] sovereignty this Day? To God, the One, the Prevailing.” (Qur’an, 40:16) This verse reminds us that ultimately the true Possessor is God, and everything we have returns to Him. Sheikh Ratib an-Nabulsi states that knowing that God Almighty is the Inheritor changes our relationship with what we perceive to be ‘ours'; it ceases to be a relationship based on ownership but rather one of responsibility and trusteeship. In this way we are not ‘entitled’ to our possessions, doing with them what we please, but rather we have to see what we have as things entrusted to us. A Bedouin was leading a camel, and was asked who the owner of the camel was. He replied, “It is God's, in my hands.” Anything that we have is God's, simply in our hands for the time being.