and he did not mean that the working partner should continue working after the funds have been converted into cash; his statement cannot validly bear that interpretation. On this understanding, his position does not contradict what is stated in al-Wādiha and Ibn al-Mawwāz’s book. As for an irrigation partnership for which a customary partnership share is awarded, if its invalidity is discovered only after work has begun, it is not terminated until its stipulated term has fully elapsed, whether that is one year or several years. The ruling differs here because an irrigation partnership has a fixed term, whereas an investment partnership does not. Nevertheless, once work has begun, the investment partnership becomes binding on both parties until the funds are converted into cash. Their conversion into cash thus marks the end of the investment partnership once work has begun. Accordingly, an investment partnership yielding a customary share and an irrigation partnership yielding a customary share are alike: if their invalidity is discovered only after work has begun, neither is terminated before its term has run. This is the interpretation intended by those who treat the two alike; those who distinguish between them do so because their durations and terms differ. This explains the issue, and success comes from Allah.
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An investment partnership may be established with gold dinars and silver dirhams. There is no disagreement among the scholars on this, since these are the fundamental measures of prices and the value of goods: all other merchandise and all property that has been destroyed are valued in them. The same applies to ingots and unminted metal—meaning unminted gold and silver—in a country where these circulate and people do not transact in minted coins.
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An investment partnership may not be established with specified items of merchandise or with commodities measured by volume or weight, according to Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, all his followers, and all the jurists of the major scholarly centres. This is because an investment partnership inherently involves uncertainty, being a hiring arrangement with unknown remuneration: the working partner does not know how much profit he will make from the capital, or whether he will make any profit at all. Islamic law nevertheless permits it because it is necessary and people need to transact in this manner. Its permissibility must therefore remain confined to the extent allowed by Islamic law; anything beyond that remains prohibited under the original rule.
Furthermore, an investment partnership established with merchandise must take one of four forms: the parties designate as its capital either the merchandise itself, the price for which the working partner sells it, its value on the day of the contract, or its value on the day of tafādul. The capital and its amount must be known in an investment partnership so that the working partner knows the basis on which he is working. If the merchandise itself constitutes the capital, this involves uncertainty because