Khutba on Contracts and Rules of Business

الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي أمرنا أن نَفِيَ بالعقود، ونفعَلَ ما نقول، ونعاملَ الخلقَ بالصدقِ والأمانةِ سواءً كان صَديقاً أو خصماً لدود، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير،  ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدّى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر. قال الله تعالى في كتابه الكريم: وَأَوْفُواْ بِالْعَهْدِ إِنَّ الْعَهْدَ كَانَ مَسْؤُول
 
            Allah says in His Noble Book, the translation of which is, “Fulfil your contracts. Contracts will be asked about.” And He says in another aya,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ
 
             the translation of which is, “You who believe, fulfil your contracts.” Contracts – this is a topic that I find myself coming back to again and again, and with good reason. For contracts are the agreements formulated between parties, and it is those agreements that lie at the heart of all muamalat, all transactions, and indeed all ibadat, since every act of worship is a contract between you and your Lord. Imam al-Qurtubi said in his famour tafsir,
            “Al-Hasan said that by contracts He means those which involve debts, namely what a person agrees for himself when it comes buying and selling, hire and renting, marriage and divorce, sharecropping, reconciliation ownership, options, freeing and other matters which are not outside the Sharı‘a. It also includes whatever obedience he contracts for himself with Allah, like Hajj, fasting, i‘tik‹af, prayer, vows and the like which are part of the worship of Islam.”
This command lies at the very essence of our deen, and its correct fulfilment is what has always set the Muslims apart. Their word once given, their contract once entered into, has always been their bond. And, in that, they are following the example of their Noble Messenger, whose most defining quality of character in his youth was his amana – his trustworthiness and honesty. Indeed, Quraysh used to refer to him as al-Amin, the trustworthy, and even after he had started calling people to Islam and become, in their eyes, their enemy, still if they needed someone to look after something or keep it on trust, they would bring it to him. Everything he said they automatically accepted as true, except when it related to the deen of Allah. The Prophet always upheld his side of the bargain, regardless of what the person on the other side of the bargain did. He said,
أدِّ الأمانةَ إلى مَن ائتَمَنَك ، ولاَ تَخُن مَن خانك
 
            “Return the things you hold on trust to those who entrusted them to you and do not cheat those who cheat you.” He is our example – we do not just follow him in how we dress, how we wear our beards, how we perform our acts of worship. We follow him in every aspect of our life. Our business dealings, our transactions with one another are just as important a part of the sunna as anything else. Indeed, they may even be more important, because it is through tha   t we, and by extension our deen, is judged by all whom we come into contact with. It is not for nothing that four fifths of the rulings of the deen relate to them.
            One of the chief reasons the deen of Allah spread so quickly in the first generations was because the peoples whom the Muslims encountered knew that their word was their bond – they knew that once the Muslims had entered into a contract, they would fulfil it. And so they welcomed the Muslims with open arms and gladly and willingly entered into the jizya contract, knowing that their Muslim conquerors would uphold their side of the bargain and keep their lives, lands and wealth safe. It was not by the sword that the deen entered the hearts of the peoples whom the Muslims encountered, but by the honesty and straightforwardness of their dealings, and the importance they attached to fulfilling their contracts. Indeed, vast nations, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, nations that had never seen a mujahid, entered into Islam after seeing these qualities in the Muslim traders who sailed into their ports.
            This is, and always has been, the very heart of the deen: indeed, we might even say that there is no deen without it, for the Prophet said,
لا إيمانَ لمن لا أمانةَ له ولا دِينَ لمن لا عَهدَ له
 
            “The one who has no amana (i.e. does not return what has been entrusted to him), has no iman. And the one who does not keep his promise has no Deen.” It is this quality that has always set us apart from the hypocrites who lie, break their promises and betray their trusts. But now those distinctions are becoming blurred and underhand business practices are becoming increasingly commonplace even among the Muslims. Contracts are no longer clear, but vague and involving much smallprint. Their purpose is no longer bring gain and benefit to both parties, but and take advantage of the naivety of the weaker party and their lack of worldliness. Business has ceased to be about equity and is now instead about exploitation, about taking whatever you can get regardless of the consequences to others or the world about you. And we have become as much a part of that world as others, justifying it to ourselves by telling ourselves that that is the only way to compete and be successful in the marketplace. But the truth of the matter is that success comes only from Allah, and Allah is only with those who have iman and hold fast to His rope, the deen of Islam. Allah is only with those who hold fast to His contract, whether with Him, themselves or other people. Allah says in surat al-Baqara,
 
وَأَوْفُوا بِعَهْدِي أُوفِ بِعَهْدِكُمْ
 
            the translation of which is, “Honour my contract and I will honour your contract/promise.” Allah’s promise to us/ His contract is that He will grant us victory, and place this world at our disposal and give us the best of the Next. That is the reward for all who base all their contracts and transactions on the commands and guidance and example of His Messenger.
 
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته. قال الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز: يَأَيُّهَا الذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لِمَ تَقُولُونَ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ، كَبُرَ مَقْتًا عِندَ اللهِ أَن تَقُولُواْ مَا لَا تَفْعَلُونَ.
 
            Allah says in His Mighty Book, the translation of which is, “Why do you say what you do not do. It is very hateful to Allah that you should say what you do not do.”
            The very essence of all mu‘amalat is doing what you say you are going to do, and doing it when you said you were going to do it. Of course, there are many other rulings that relate to them – indeed those rulings fill tomes and have largely been lost and forgotten today by being neglected and neither applied nor practised. And that knowledge must be recovered for the deen to once again thrive. And that knowledge is being recovered and is already being re-implemented and we must all become part of that re-implementation.
            And that re-implementation begins with us fulfilling our contracts and appointments to the letter and to the minute, for when it comes to contracts the element of time cannot – I repeat, cannot – be overstated. Everything in the deen of Allah is appointed a time and that applies to our contracts with each other just as much as to our contracts with our Lord. An appointment is a contract, so take care not to break them.
            Another essential element of any contract is clarity – both parties must know exactly what they are agreeing to. The two parties must try to make the wording of their contract watertight so that are both fully aware of what it is they are entering into. Vagueness and ambiguity are to be avoided. It is not for nothing the Messenger of Allah forbade bay’ al-gharar – transactions involving uncertainty, transactions when one party does not know exactly what they are getting, such as purchasing the contents of a sack without knowing what it contains, or purchasing the fish in a lake without knowing how many there are.
            Another important element is that both parties enter into the contract willingly and there is no coercion or blackmail, for that inevitably leads to a contract that is inherently unjust and Allah hates injustice. The Prophet said,

إن العدل ميزان الله في الأرض. فمن أخذه قاده إلى الجنة ومن تركه ساقه إلى النار

            “Justice is the scales with which Allah measures [the inhabitants of] the earth. It leads those who hold to it to the Garden and drives those who abandon it to the Fire.”
            Thus, any condition that is added to a contract that is unjust and contrary to the deen is rejected. The Prophet said,
كل شرط ليس في كتاب الله باطل، أو كما قال
           
            “Any precondition that is not found in the Book of Allah is null and void.”
            And finally make sure that the contract is written down and witnessed. Man is created forgetful and that is often the reason for missed deadlines or disputes about prices and amounts, but with a record that has been witnessed, such problems dissolve. Allah says,
 
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا إِذَا تَدَايَنْتُمْ بِدَيْنٍ إِلَى أَجَلٍ مُسَمًّى فَاكْتُبُوهُ
 
            the translation of which is, “You who believe, when you take on a debt for a specified period, write it down”. And then, later in the same aya, Allah says,
 
وَلاَ تَسْأَمُوْاْ أَن تَكْتُبُوْهُ صَغِيراً أَو كَبِيراً إِلَى أَجَلِهِ

            the translation of which is, “Do not think it too trivial to write down, whether small or large, with the date that it falls due.” Although this aya refers specifically to debts, its ruling applies to all types of transactions. And because of that, a whole branch of knowledge came to be, called watha’iq, the science of formulating and writing up contracts. And, indeed, this science continues to be taught and studied until the present day in the great institutions of learning such as the Qarawiyyin in Fes and the Azhar in Cairo.
            These then are the essentials for making our transactions halal and correct in the sight of Allah. If we put them into practice and have a firm intention, then the whole matter will fall into place. With the implementation of these simple things, the weakness and lethargy that has overcome the Muslim Umma will evaporate and its strength will return. We will soon see the mistrust with which people view us transformed into respect, we will soon see them hurrying to enter Islam in their droves. Because that is what our Lord has promised us – if we fulfil our contracts, He will fulfil His contract to us and grant us victory and success. So we ask Allah to enable us to fulfil our contracts. We ask Him to make us people of our word and people who appreciate the importance of time. We ask Him to make us people who do what they say they will do. We ask Him to make us people who change themselves and give us the promised victory. We ask Him to re-establish the deen in its full glory in our time and make us among those who are at the vanguard of its re-establishment.
 
إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائكتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَليْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً. اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ  أَجْمَعِينَ.
وَارْضَ اللهُمَّ عنِ الخلفَاءِ الرَّاشدِينَ أَبِي بكرٍ وَعمرَ وَعثْمانَ وَعلِيٍّ، وَعن عائشةَ وسائر أزواج النبي، وعنْ سائرِ الصحابَةِ أَجمعينَ، خصُوصاً اِلأَنصَارَ منْهُمْ وَالمهَاجرِينَ، وَعنِ التَّابعينَ وَتابعِي التَّابعينَ وَمَنْ تبعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللهُمَّ اهدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسلِمينَ لما يُرْضيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سنَّةِ نبيِّكَ صلَّى اللهُ عَليْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ. 
اللهُمَّ بارِكْ علَى المُسلِمينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفقهُمْ لِمَا تُحبُّهُ وَتَرْضاهُ يَا أَكرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللهُمَّ أَعزَّ الإِسلَامَ وَالمُسلمينَ (3) وَاخذُلِ الكفْرَ وَالكافرِينَ، وَانْصرِ المُجاهدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
اللهُمَّ لاَ تَدَعْ فِي مقامنَا هَذَا ذَنباً إِلاَّ غفَرْتَهُ، وَلاَ عيْباً إِلاَّ ستَرْتَهُ، وَلاَ مَرِيضاً إِلاَّ شفَيْتَهُ وَعَافيْتَهُ، وَلاَ مَسْجُوناً إِلاَّ طلقتَ سَرَاحَهُ، وَلاَ مُسَافراً فِي بَرِّكَ وَبَحْرِكَ إِلاَّ سَلِِمْتَهُ وَغَنِمْتَهُ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يامُرُ بالعَدْلِ وَالإِحسانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي القرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الفَحشاءِ وَالمنكَرِ وَالبَغْيِ، يَعظُكمْ لعَلكمْ تذَّكرُونَ، وَلذِكرُ اللهِ أَكبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.