The Creed of Compassion-Islamic Teachings & Answering Doctrinal Misconceptions

Issue No.1924- If a person engages several persons as agents for performing a task, and says to them, “each one of you is my independent agent”, in this case, if any one of them performs the task, it would be in order; and if one of them dies the agency of others is not invalidated. In case, however, he tells them that they are all his agents jointly, none of them can act independently, and if one of them dies, the agency of the others is invalidated.

Issue No.1925- If the agent or the principal dies or becomes insane, the agency becomes invalid, though the insane may become sane later. Temporary insanity also causes, on the basis of obligatory precaution, the agency to become invalid. However, temporary unconsciousness does not make the agency invalid.

Issue No.1926- If a person appoints someone as an agent to perform a task, and fixes wages for his services, he should pay him the same after the completion of the task.

Issue No.1927- If an agent has been careless in looking after the property entrusted to him or utilises it in a manner other than that for which he has been accorded permission, and consequently the property perishes or becomes defective, he is responsible for it. However, if after that utilisation, the property still exists, and then he uses it in the authorised manner, that will be in order.

Issue No.1928- Ju‘ālah means that a person promises that if a particular work is completed for him, he will give him a specified amount for it. For example, he declares that if anyone recovers his lost property, he will give him £100.00. One who makes such a declaration is called the rewarder (jā‘il), and the person who carries out that work is called the executor (‘āmil). The difference between Ju‘ālah and hiring is that in the case of “hiring” the hired person is bound to do the job after agreement, and the hirer becomes indebted to the hired person for his wages, whereas in the case of Ju‘ālah, the person who agrees to do the job is at liberty to abandon it if he wishes so, and unless he completes the job assigned, the person who declared the reward or payment does not become indebted to him.

Issue No.1929- The agreement (Ju‘ālah) can be made with an unspecified amount (e.g., someone says “If any physician cures my son’s disease, I will pay him such an amount”) or a specified person (e.g., somebody says to a sea-diver, “If you bring that drowned item of mine out of the sea, I’ll give you £150.00).”, the Ju‘ālah will be in order in both cases.

Issue No.1930- The person who makes this agreement should be mature, sane, and should have made the agreement with his free will and intention, and should be entitled legally to utilise his property. Hence, the agreement of a mentally incompetent person who squanders his property indiscreetly is not in order.

Issue No.1931- The task for which the declaration is made by the rewarder should not be haram, and it should also bear a rational result. Hence, if he declares that he will give such an amount to a person who drinks alcohol, or traverses a dark passage at night without any sensible purpose, the agreement will not be in order.

Issue No.1932- If a person specifies a property and says, for example, “If anyone finds my horse, I will give him this wheat”, the obligatory precaution is that he should specify its quantity as well as its particulars which are effective in its value, but if he does not specify a property and for example says, “Whoever finds my horse, I will give him 100 kgs of wheat”, he should specify the particulars of the wheat which will be effective in its value. However, if he does not fix a wage for this task and says, “Whoever finds my lost property, I will give him some money or a reward”, the agreement is void. If a person in this case undertakes that task, he should give him wages according to the usual value of this job, unless one can gather from the rewarder’s words that the amount he meant was less than that, in which case, he should give him the intended amount.

Issue No.1933- If the executor performs the task before the agreement is made, or performs it after the agreement but with the intention that he will not take any money, he is not entitled to demand wages.

Issue No.1934- If a person declares whoever finds his lost property he would give him half of it, while the executor is not aware of the particulars and the value of the lost property, the Ju‘ālah is void as an obligatory precaution.

Issue No.1935- Either parties can cancel the Ju‘ālah agreement before the work starts. They can also cancel it after the work starts, but if the rewarder cancels it, he should give the executor wages for the amount of work he has done.