A muḍāraba may be validly limited to a fixed period; the capital owner might say, “I engage you with these dirhams for one year.”

It is likewise valid to suspend a muḍāraba on a condition. The owner may state, “When such-and-such a month arrives, trade with this capital,” or, “When you have collected my debt from Zayd, the money in your hands will be a muḍāraba,” for a muḍāraba is merely a license to transact, and such permission may be linked to a future condition.

The working partner may not accept a muḍāraba from another person if doing so would prejudice the first capital owner, unless the latter grants permission. Harm arises, for example, when the second fund is so large that it absorbs all of the worker’s time and distracts him from trading with the first fund, or when the first fund itself is so substantial that any diversion of the worker’s attention would impede its management. If the first owner consents, or if no harm is feared, the worker may take on a muḍāraba for someone else.

Should the worker nonetheless undertake a second muḍāraba that harms the first owner and does so without his permission, the worker’s own share of the profit from the second venture must be returned to the partnership with the first owner. The owner of the second muḍāraba receives his stipulated share, while the worker’s share is taken and added to the profit of the first muḍāraba; that combined profit is then divided between the worker and the first owner according to their initial agreement. This is because the benefit of the labour the worker devoted to the second venture was, in fact, already owed to the first.

The worker is not entitled to spend from the muḍāraba capital—whether for travel or for anything else—unless he has stipulated that right with the owner, for he works in return for a portion of the profit and deserves nothing beyond it except by explicit condition; unless there is an established custom in such circumstances, in which case the custom is observed.