With the Noble Prophetic Hadith
Whoever hires a worker... let him inform him of his wage!!
We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere. We meet you in a new episode of your program "With the Noble Prophetic Hadith," and we begin with the best greeting and the purest peace. Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you. Hereafter:
Abu Hanifa narrated, from Hammad, from Ibrahim, from Al-Aswad, from Abu Hurairah, from the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: "...And whoever hires a worker, let him inform him of his wage."
Dear listeners:
God Almighty created people and made them in degrees in terms of wealth and poverty; So that some of them may take others in servitude. God Almighty said: (Is it they who distribute the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have apportioned among them their livelihood in the life of this world and have raised some of them above others in degrees, that they may make use of one another. But the mercy of your Lord is better than what they accumulate. And if it were not that the people would become one community, We would have made for those who disbelieve in the Most Merciful - for their houses - roofs of silver and stairways on which to mount). (Al-Zukhruf 33) God has legislated lease for His servants, and has legislated for lease rulings to facilitate them, and to preserve the rights of lessors and lessees. So what is a lease? What is its definition? What are its types? And what are the evidences of its legitimacy from the Book and from the Sunnah? Did the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, and his companions, may God be pleased with them, practice leasing?
Definition: Lease is a binding contract, for a known benefit, for a known period, for a known price.
Types: There are three types of lease contracts:
1- The first type: Contracts on the benefits of things, i.e. things, everything in its own right and essence: such as renting commercial stores, houses, animals, and vehicles or small and large cars.
2- The second type: Contracts on the benefits of works: such as renting craftsmen and tradesmen for specific works. The contracted thing is the benefit that results from the work, such as renting the dyer, the engineer, the builder, the blacksmith, the carpenter, and others.
3- The third type: Contracts on the benefits of persons: such as renting servants and workers to perform specific tasks.
Lease in all its forms is permissible in Islamic law. The evidences for this from the Holy Quran and from the verbal and practical Prophetic Sunnah are many, including:
1- God Almighty's saying: (Then if they suckle [the children] for you, give them their payment). (Al-Talaq 6)
2- God Almighty's saying: (One of the women said, "O my father, hire him. Indeed, the best one you can hire is the strong and the trustworthy."). (Al-Qasas 26)
3- And His saying: (He said, "Indeed, I wish to wed you one of these, my two daughters, on [the condition] that you serve me for eight years; but if you complete ten, it will be [as a favor] from you. And I do not wish to put you in difficulty. You will find me, if Allah wills, among the righteous." He said, "That is [established] between me and you. Whichever of the two terms I complete - there is no injustice to me, and Allah, over what we say, is Witness."). (Al-Qasas 28)
4- And His saying: (So they set out, until when they came to the people of a town, they asked its people for food, but they refused to be their guests. Then they found therein a wall about to collapse, so he restored it. [Moses] said, "If you wished, you could have taken for it a payment."). (Al-Kahf 77)
5- And among the legal evidences for the permissibility of lease is the saying of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: "Whoever hires a worker, let him inform him of his wage."
6- And also from it is his action, may God bless him and grant him peace: He and Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq hired a man from the tribe of Bani Al-Deil as a guide in their migration to Medina, a skilled guide, an expert in the roads, who would guide them to a safe path between Mecca and Medina.
And among the legal rulings that God has legislated for lease is that the worker is given his wage as soon as he finishes his work, and before his sweat dries. This is the principle, as the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: "Give the worker his wage before his sweat dries." But if the contracting parties agree to postpone the payment to a time after the completion of the work, that is permissible. Islam has emphasized the necessity of giving the worker his wage, so it has forbidden whoever hires a worker to eat the worker's right, to the extent that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, informed us that whoever hires a worker and receives the work from him, and does not give him his wage, God Almighty will be his opponent on the Day of Resurrection, and whoever God Almighty is his opponent will never succeed. The Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said in what he narrates from God Almighty: "There are three whom I will be their opponent on the Day of Resurrection: a man who gives by Me and then betrays, a man who sells a free man and eats his price, and a man who hires a worker, receives the work from him, and does not pay him his wage." Also, God Almighty forgives all sins except for associating partners with God, and except for the rights of servants, including financial rights, for they remain suspended until the right holder takes his right from the one who wronged him, or until the right holder forgives him. Knowing that dealing with financial rights on the Day of Resurrection is not with money, but with good deeds and bad deeds, so whoever has a financial injustice against his brother, the wronged person takes from the oppressor's good deeds. And if the oppressor has no good deeds, or his good deeds are exhausted, then bad deeds are taken from the wronged person and placed on top of the oppressor's bad deeds, so he is punished with them as God wills.
Dear listeners: We thank you for your good listening. Our appointment with you is in the next episode, God willing. Until that time, and until we meet you always, we leave you in God's care, protection, and security. Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir radio
Professor Muhammad Ahmad Al-Nadi - Jordan - 9/6/2014 AD
