whereby two people enter into an agreement concerning something in which they will share. This type of partnership is established only through a contract between the parties.
Know that it is part of Allah’s mercy and His generosity toward His servants that He has permitted partnership contracts. A person may be unable to manage and invest his property independently. For example, a man may possess considerable wealth but be paralysed, chronically disabled, or blind; so he gives some of this wealth to another person to benefit from and trade with, and the profit is shared between them.
As for its ruling, it is permissible and not forbidden. Here we may ask: Do we need evidence to establish its permissibility or not?
The answer is that we do not need evidence for its permissibility. If someone were to ask us, “What is your evidence that partnership is permissible?” we would say: There is no need for specific evidence, because the basic principle in financial transactions is permissibility. Thus, we say that our evidence is the absence of any proof prohibiting it, since the basic principle in financial transactions is permissibility. Allah, the Exalted, says: “So send one of you with this silver coin of yours...” [Quran 18:19]. He attributed the silver to all of them, and this undoubtedly constitutes joint participation in a disposition, for it is apparent that they were not heirs who had inherited these silver coins.
Thus, it is joint participation in an entitlement or a disposition. In terms of its prescriptive legal ruling, it is permissible, and the evidence for its permissibility is the absence of evidence prohibiting it.
We also have evidence from the Shariah. As for partnership in entitlement, Allah, the Exalted, says: “Then they share one third.” [Quran 4:12]. As for contractual partnership, it is as we mentioned in the story of the Companions of the Cave. Allah, the Exalted, also says: “He sets forth for you a parable drawn from yourselves: Do you have, among those whom your right hands possess, any...”