Chapter on Ju'alah (a Reward Contract)

It is to stipulate a known payment for whoever performs, on one’s behalf, a task that may be known or unknown, within a specified or unspecified period. . . .

His statement, “ju'alah,” is a noun derived from ja'l, which means to place or assign something. The author defined it by saying: “It is to stipulate a known payment for whoever performs, on one’s behalf, a task that may be known or unknown, within a specified or unspecified period.”

Ju'alah is a contract in which it is not stipulated that one of the two considerations be known. That is, the ju'alah contract involves a payment offered and work to be performed: the payment offered must be specified, whereas the work to be performed need not be specified. The payment comes from the offeror, while the work is performed by the worker.

The difference between a ju'alah contract and a hiring contract is that hiring is with a specified person, whereas ju'alah is an open offer: one simply says, “Whoever does such-and-such will receive such-and-such.” For this reason, it is a revocable contract. If someone were to ask, “How can you permit this arrangement despite the uncertainty involved?” we would answer: We permit it because there is a need for it, and it is not binding, since the worker may abandon the task whenever he wishes, as ju'alah is a revocable contract. Were this arrangement not available, many of people’s interests would be lost. For example, if a person’s camel goes missing, he cannot hire someone to bring it back, because that person does not know when he will find the camel. Thus, nothing remains but ju'alah.