Chapter on the Rulings Concerning the Custodian

Entrustment (īdāʿ) is the act of deputing someone to safeguard property gratuitously.

Linguistically, a wadīʿa (deposit) comes from wadaʿa, “to leave something,” because the article is left with the custodian. In Islamic law it refers to property placed with a person for safekeeping without compensation.

For an entrustment to be valid, the same qualifications required for agency apply: legal adulthood, sound mind, and financial maturity, for entrustment is a form of agency in guarding property.

It is recommended for anyone who knows himself to be trustworthy and capable of protecting the deposit to accept it, for doing so earns abundant reward. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is in the aid of His servant so long as the servant is in the aid of his brother.” People also need this service. If, however, a person is unsure of his ability to safeguard it, accepting the deposit is disliked.

One of the rulings of a deposit is that if it perishes while with the custodian without any negligence on his part, he incurs no liability, just as if it were lost among his own belongings. It is an amāna (trust), and the trustee bears no liability so long as he has not transgressed. A weak hadith states that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever is entrusted with a deposit incurs no liability,” related by Ibn Mājah; al-Dāraqutnī narrated it with the wording, “There is no liability upon the one entrusted.”