2, "The best of those that thou canst take into service is the strong one, the faithful one" (28:26).
3. "Allāh commands you to make over trusts to those worthy of them" (4:58).
4. "Place me in authority over the treasures of the land, for I am a good keeper. knowing well" (12:55).
5. "He who acts unfaithfully shall bring that in respect of which he has acted unfaithfully on the day of resurrection" (3:160).
The word ijārah (from air meaning reward) signifies compensation for work done, or wages paid by one man to another for service rendered. The two basic rules laid down in this connection, both in the Holy Qur'ān and the Hadīth, are that the servant shall do his work faithfully and to the best of his ability, and that the master shall pay him fully for the service rendered (vv. 1, 2). The officials of the government are placed in the category of servants, however high their position may be. The trust spoken of in v. 3 relates to the authority placed in the hands of such servants as explained by the Holy Prophet (B. 3:2). Authority to rule must be placed in the hands of those who are fit to rule (v. 4). Unfaithfulness is severely condemned (v. 5).
Even such a service as the tending of goats is considered honourable, the Holy Prophet himself doing this work in his earlier days (h. 1), and his companions did not disdain the work of a porter (h. 2). The faithful servant carrying out the orders of his master is ranked with those who give charity (h. 3). As conditions of different kinds of service must necessarily be different, the broad rule is laid down that the master and the servant, as well as all those who make a contract, are bound by the conditions of the contract of service (h. 4). A Muslim can take a non-Muslim into his service (h. 5), and he can also enter into the service of a non-Muslim (h. 6). A man who renders a service in connection with the teaching of the Holy Qur'ān is entitled to remuneration, as is any other person engaged for any kind of service (h. 7), even a commission
"Allāh did not raise a prophet but he pastured goats."
His companions said, And thou?
He said:
"Yes! I used to pasture them for the people of Makkah for some carats."1
(B. 37:2.)
2 Abū Mas'ūd said, When the Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, commanded us to give in charity, one of us went to the market and carried a load for which he got a
1. Qarat is the same as carat, but its weight is said to be four grains, a carat being 3 1/5 gr. It is in some parts a twenty-fourth. and in others a twentieth, part of a dīnār. The word ra'ā signifies both he pastured the cattle and he ruled. Looking after the welfare of animals is thus connected with devotion to the welfare of humanity.
3 Abū Mūsā reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, said:
"The faithful treasurer who pays what he is ordered with a willing heart is one of those who give charity."
(B. 37:1.)
4 The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, said:
"Muslims shall be bound by the conditions which they make."2
(B. 37:14.)
5 'Ā'ishah said,
The Messenger of Allāh, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, and Abū Bakr employed a man of the Banī Dīl as a guide, a clever man, and he followed the religion of the
2. The direction contained in this hadīth is of a general nature and relates to all contracts, subject to the basic rule that no condition opposed to the law of Islām is valid. Bukhārī mentions this hadīth in the book entitled "Services" to show that the relation between master and servant is a contract in reality.
(B. 37:4.)
6 Khabbāb said,
I was a blacksmith in the days of ignorance, and I had a debt due from 'Ās ibn Wā'il. So I came to him demanding it. He said, I will not give it to thee until thou deniest Muhammad. I said, I will not deny even if Allāh cause thee to die and thou art then raised to life
(B. 34:29.)
3. The hadīth relates to the Holy Prophet's flight to Madīnah, and shows, along with h. 7, that either of the contracting parties in the relation of master and servant may be a non-Muslim.
"The most worthy of things for which you take a remuneration is the Book of Allāh."4
And Ibn Sīrīn said ...:
People paid remuneration for computing by conjecture the quantity of fruit.
(B. 37:16.)
8 Ibn Sīrīn saw no harm in the remuneration of the commission agent.
And Ibn 'Abbās said, There is no harm that one should say,
Sell this cloth for me and what thou obtainest over such and such an amount, it shall be for thee.
(B. 37:14.)
9 Abū Hurairah reported, The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allāh be on him, said
4. Service rendered, of whatever kind it might be, brought a remuneration, and it made no difference that the service was rendered in connection with the Book of Allāh. For instance, a person who taught the Holy Qur'ān was entitled to remuneration; so was a person who wrote the Holy Qur'ān or did any other service in relation to the Holy Book.