Section
An agent is a trustee: he is not liable for anything that perishes while in his possession without negligence on his part. His statement, supported by his oath, is accepted in denying liability and in claiming that it perished.
The author’s statement, “An agent is a trustee”: a trustee here means one entrusted with something; it is an intensive-form adjective carrying the meaning of a passive participle, because the property came into his possession with its owner’s permission. The author—may Allah have mercy on him—thereby teaches us that among those who hold other people’s property are trustees and non-trustees. What, then, distinguishes a trustee from one who is not a trustee?
We say: the criterion is that everyone who holds property by permission of the Sacred Law or by permission of its owner is a trustee; whereas whoever holds it without permission from the Sacred Law or the owner is not a trustee. Consider the guardian of an orphan: he is a trustee, for the Sacred Law has authorized him. The administrator of an endowment is a trustee, for the endower has authorized him. The executor of a will is a trustee, for the testator has authorized him. The lessee, in whose possession the leased item is held, is a trustee, for the lessor has authorized him—and so on.
An agent is a trustee because the item came into his possession by authorization from the principal. When does this trusteeship cease?
It ceases if he transgresses or is negligent, and his possession is no longer that of a trustee.
For example, you deposit ten thousand riyals with someone, and he places them before him in a box. They remain in the box, and he does not use them; at this point he is a trustee, because the money is in his possession by the owner’s permission. Then one day this man has a need, so he borrows this money, uses it to buy something, and returns it to the box on the same day. His trusteeship then ceases, because his possession has become that of a non-trustee: he disposed of the property without its owner’s permission, and this is transgression.
If someone were to say: He took ten thousand and returned it on the very same day, and to the very same box?