Discover the meaning of the term Sharika (شركة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readIt is the two shares’ mingling and beyond, such that they distinguish not; then the company’s name applied to the contract though no shares’ mingling exists.
Lexically: the two shares’ mingling and beyond, each share not distinguishing from the other’s. The verifier at-Taftazani said in the Creeds’ commentary: shirka is two joining a thing each staying alone in what is his besides the other, as partners of village and quarter; and as when the slave is made creator of his deeds and the Maker creator of the other accidents and bodies, unlike attributing a matter to two things by two differing faces: earth Allah’s property by creating and servants’ by disposal’s establishing; the servant’s act attributed Allah by creating and the servant by earning. Applied also to the contract, as in an-Nihaya. In the Law: two or more’s appropriating one locus; of two kinds: ownership-partnership and contract-partnership.
With shin fatha and ra kasra, like kalima; related shin kasra and ra sukun, like ni’ma; Makki related shin fatha and ra sukun on tamra’s pattern. Lexically: the mingling or blending of the two shares. Said: he made him partner in the sale; the name ach-chirk. Ibn Sidah relates: I made him partner in the matter and associated him. Al-Jouhari said: « I took him partner »: became his partner; we partnered in this: became partners therein. Ach-chirk, on al-’ilm’s pattern: associating and share. As a term: among the Hanafis, in al-Ikhtiyar: the blend and the share’s standing. In the Ta’rifat: the two shares’ mingling and beyond without distinguishing; then the company’s name applied to the contract though no shares’ mingling. Al-Maydani said: two or more’s appropriating one locus (related by al-Qashtani from al-Moudmirat).
The blending of two wealths not distinguishing, on condition.
Two shares’ mingling and beyond for blending and joining; by usage, mingling such they distinguish not; then the company’s name applied to the contract though no shares’ mingling, mentioned by Ibn Kamil.