The fifth type is a comprehensive partnership: each of the two partners authorizes the other to undertake every financial and physical form of transaction included under the various types of partnership. Profit is divided according to whatever they stipulate, while loss is borne in proportion to their respective capital contributions. But if they include within it an unusual gain or liability, or a liability incumbent upon either of them due to usurpation or the like, it is invalid.
His statement, “The fifth type is a comprehensive partnership”: in reality, a comprehensive partnership is a general partnership encompassing all four of the preceding types of partnership: ʿinān partnership, muḍāraba partnership, partnership based on creditworthiness, and labor partnership.
A comprehensive partnership is for the two parties to enter into partnership in every type of partnership.
His statement, “Each of the two partners authorizes the other to undertake every financial and physical form of transaction included under the various types of partnership”: thus, each authorizes the other in every type of partnership—muḍāraba, ʿinān, labor partnership, and partnership based on creditworthiness. It is therefore comprehensive. This is the arrangement under which many people conduct business today; indeed, most partnerships today are based on this. For example, one finds that each partner sells on deferred payment, enters into muḍāraba, travels with the capital, and lends money—in other words, he engages in everything.
The jurists differed regarding this partnership: some permitted it, while others prohibited it, saying: If we were to permit this broad form of partnership, it could not be fully controlled. It is a comprehensive authorization that may lead to disorder and excessive uncertainty, because it encompasses everything: one partner may engage in muḍāraba, the second in a labor partnership, the third in a partnership based on creditworthiness, and the fourth in an ʿinān partnership.
We say: There is nothing objectionable in it, because every type of partnership falls under the contract of comprehensive partnership. It does no more than combine separate arrangements: muḍāraba on its own is permissible, ʿinān on its own is permissible, partnership based on creditworthiness is permissible, and labor partnership is permissible. Thus, it does nothing beyond bringing these four together. What is permissible separately is permissible when combined. Therefore, the sound view is that held by the Hanbalis: it is permissible, people have need of it, and this is how people conduct business today,