to him explicitly, “Spend on it on the understanding that your expenditure is secured by the pledge.” This, too, is contrary to Ashhab’s position.

As for the customary profit share in an investment partnership, it is tied to the profits earned by the capital. This is the established, well-known position. However, in his commentary on al-Risāla, Abd al-Wahhāb reports that al-Qādī Abū al-Hasan said: “In my view, Mālik’s position may allow the working partner an amount equivalent to his customary partnership share even if the capital has sustained a loss.” Abd al-Wahhāb said: “On this interpretation, the distinction between the customary partnership share and customary remuneration is that customary remuneration is assessed independently of the stipulated condition, whereas the customary partnership share is assessed in relation to the condition they stipulated.”

To explain this: in the case of hiring, one asks, “If the capital provider had hired someone to perform this work for him, what would his remuneration have been?” The working partner is then entitled to that amount. In the case of an investment partnership, one asks, “Since the working partner agreed to such-and-such a share under this invalid stipulation, what should he receive?” Whatever is assessed as the customary partnership share thus amounts, on al-Qādī Abū al-Hasan’s interpretation, to customary remuneration. On his interpretation, the only difference lies in the method of assessment. This is very far-fetched.

Section

An invalid investment partnership must be terminated, whether before or after work has begun, and whether the working partner is to receive customary remuneration or a customary partnership share. This differs from an irrigation partnership, since an irrigation partnership for which a customary partnership share is awarded is not terminated after work has begun. This is Ibn Habīb’s position in al-Wādiha, and the same is stated in Ibn al-Mawwāz’s book.

Where customary remuneration is awarded and the invalidity is discovered after work has begun, the manner of termination is clear: the goods found in the working partner’s possession are returned to the capital provider, and the working partner receives customary remuneration for purchasing them. Where a customary partnership share is awarded, however, termination does not mean returning the merchandise to the capital provider. Rather, it means that once the funds in the working partner’s possession have been converted into cash, he must not continue working under that invalid partnership.

Abd al-Haqq reports from one of the shaykhs of Sicily that an investment partnership for which a customary partnership share is awarded is not terminated after work has begun, just like an irrigation partnership. He means that if its invalidity is discovered after the funds have been invested in goods, the working partner does not return them as goods, nor is he compelled to sell them except in accordance with the market prospects he had in mind when purchasing them,