Partnership is joining two properties together and having joint rights. Upon being partners in a property, the rights including will, inheritance or gift are shared and supposed to be documented by a contract.

Partnership: definition and rulings

The Arabic term sharikah, which means in modern parlance ‘partnership, firm or company’, originally means joining two properties together so that they cannot be separated. In Islamic contexts it means ‘having joint rights or actions’ [1] Examples of joint rights include the rights to inheritance, will, or a gift that gives shares of benefit or ownership. This is also called ‘partnership in ownership’. Having a joint action is one that results from partnership made by contract. This type is the focus of our discussion here.

Partnership is legitimate as evidenced by several Qur’anic verses and hadith.

:Allah says

‘Thus do many partners wrong one another, except for those who believe and do righteous deeds’

(38:24)

and:

‘If they are more than two, then they shall share in one-third’

(4:12)

Partnership is a legitimate contract which enables people to cooperate in investing their money and in undertaking large industrial, commercial or agricultural projects that they cannot individually undertake.


references

  1. Ibn Qudamah, Al-Mughni, vol. 5, p. 3,875.


Comments

dialogs