What it means
امانت (amânat) is anything entrusted to your keeping. From the Arabic root ا م ن (ʾ-m-n) “to be safe,” the same root as ایمان (imân) “faith” and امن (amn) “security.” The word covers the literal and the metaphorical at the same time.
Literal: a friend leaves their phone with you for an afternoon, that phone is امانت. A neighbor asks you to hold an envelope of cash, that is امانت. Metaphorical: a parent says فرزند امانت خداست (farzand amânat-e khodâ-st) “a child is a trust from God,” meaning the parent does not own the child, only safeguards them. A patient’s secret is امانت in the doctor’s keeping.
How to use it
- این امانته (in amânat-e) “this is a trust” (said when handing something over)
- امانتداری (amânat-dâri) “the keeping of trust, trustworthiness”
- در امانت خیانت کرد (dar amânat khiyânat kard) “he/she betrayed the trust”
- فرزند امانت خداست (farzand amânat-e khodâ-st) “a child is a trust from God”
- امانت بذار پیشم (amânat bezâr pish-am) “leave it with me as a trust”
- امانتفروشی (amânat-foruhi) “consignment shop” (a shop that sells goods entrusted to it)
Cultural context
امانت is one of the load-bearing beams of Iranian ethics. The Quran has a verse called آیة الامانة (the Verse of the Trust, Quran 33:72) where God offers “the trust” to the heavens and the earth, they refuse, and the human accepts. Iranian religious thought treats the verse as the founding moment of moral responsibility: to be human is to carry an امانت.
The everyday consequence is a sharp moral line. Stealing is bad. Stealing from an امانت is much worse. An Iranian might forgive someone who failed them in business, but breaching امانت, betraying something explicitly entrusted, is the kind of failing that ends friendships and gets remembered for decades. The word also explains the gravity Iranians attach to keeping a secret: a secret you were told is not information, it is امانت.
The word also sits in everyday Tehran economics. امانتفروشی shops, where people sell jewelry, carpets, and household goods on consignment, are common in older neighborhoods. The shop is not buying your items, it is holding them as امانت until a buyer arrives. The legal-ethical frame is the same word that frames a child or a secret. Iranians do not separate these into different categories. The same trust shape covers them all.
Related words
- امین (amin) “trustworthy person, custodian”
- اعتماد (e’temâd) “trust (the feeling)”
- خیانت (khiyânat) “betrayal” (the antonym of amânat-dâri)
- سپرده (seporde) “deposit” (banking and general)
- ایمان (imân) “faith” (same root)
References
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