Islamic Fiqh > Companies and leases > Wages and salaried work (ujra)
The worker and his wage: the prompt-payment rule, freedom of work, lawful employment contract conditions and strikes.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Fiqh distinguishes the private worker (ajir khass), hired by a determined person or group for a term (his time belongs to his employer), and the common worker (ajir mushtarak), who earns his wage by the work and not by his person: dyer, smith, porter, physician. The private worker is a trust: the four schools agree that he does not guarantee what perishes in his hand without transgression or negligence; he guarantees his transgression; he may not commit his work to another during the hired term.
The original rule: no guarantee upon the worker, the Prophet having lifted it (Ibn Rushd). The Malikis (Malik to Ibn Wahb) make the craftsman guarantor of what is handed to him for his work, by public necessity: otherwise everyone would deny the loss. The four schools make him guarantor of what his hand causes or of his negligence; on loss without fault, Abu Hanifa, Zufr, al-Hasan, one version of ash-Shafi'i and one of Ahmad keep the trust hand, while the Hanafi fatwa (Abu Yusuf and Muhammad), the Malikis, the Shafi'i madhhab and the Hanbali madhhab bind him even without transgression, except overwhelming fire, drowning or theft; Umar used to hold the craftsmen liable as a precaution for people's wealth, and Ali said: "nothing reforms people but this".
When the guarantee applies, the Hanafis leave the choice to the client: raw value or finished work against the wage; the Malikis take the value of the day of delivery; the soundest Shafi'i view, the value of the day of loss. The craftsman whose work is visible (dyer, tailor) may retain the object until payment (Hanafis, Malik in the Mudawwana); the porter, whose work leaves no trace, may retain nothing, on pain of usurpation (consensus); he claims his wage only after unloading (Ali's story). The worker employed on the client's ground (builder, well-digger) claims his due pro rata and remains bound to finish, even if the building collapses.
A woman may serve a woman, a man a man; a man hiring a free woman: valid but discouraged once seclusion becomes possible (Hanafis, Malikis), accepted by the Hanbalis with the rules of looking; seclusion remains forbidden for all. The Muslim may hire a protected subject (dhimmi) without dispute; serving a non-Muslim for lawful work is valid but discouraged for the majority (Hanafis, Malikis, one Shafi'i view, one Hanbali version), on Ali's story of plowing for a Jew against dates, which the Prophet did not disapprove (reported by Ahmad 1582, Ibn Hibban 5201); unlawful work, such as pressing wine or herding pigs, remains forbidden and its doer is disciplined, save in ignorance.
The hours of the five prayers and the customary meals fall outside the hired term without wage reduction; Friday and the feasts join them (Hanbalis), the Hanafis counting only the obligatory prayers, the sunnah being debated; the baker and his like must aim at Friday prayer so long as their work does not perish (Shafi'is). If the contract requires his own hands, he does not delegate; otherwise he may seek helpers (al-Kasani).
Written contract, known wage, worship time preserved, liability bounded to fault: modern employment rediscovers what the ajir's status already stated.