is shared between them. If three people enter a joint venture in which one supplies an animal, another provides the tools, and the third undertakes the labor, on the understanding that whatever income is realized belongs to them collectively, the contract is valid.

A brokers’ partnership is likewise lawful when they jointly call out the goods, display them, and bring in customers; any commission earned is to be divided among them.

Third: the unrestricted partnership (sharikat al-mufāwaḍa)

An unrestricted partnership is one in which each partner authorizes the other to carry out every financial and physical transaction that falls within the various categories of partnership. In effect, it combines the features of a property-based partnership (sharikat al-ʿinān), a silent-partner investment (muḍāraba), a liability or credit partnership (wujūh), and a labor partnership (abdān); in other words, they share in everything that is accrued for them or imposed upon them.

This form of partnership is valid because it merges several arrangements, each of which is independently permissible; what is lawful on its own remains lawful when combined with others.

Profits in this partnership are distributed according to whatever proportions the partners have stipulated, while losses are borne in proportion to each partner’s share of the capital.

Thus, Islamic law broadens the avenues of lawful earning: it allows a person to earn independently or in cooperation with others, and it treats people according to the conditions they set for themselves, provided those conditions are neither oppressive nor forbidden. This shows the perennial suitability of this Sharīʿa for every time and place.

We ask Allah to grant us adherence to it and steadfastness upon its path; He is indeed All-Hearing, Ever-Responsive.