Book: The Liability of Craftsmen

Section
The Grounds for Holding Craftsmen Liable

The basic rule is that craftsmen bear no liability and are regarded as entrusted custodians, because they are hired workers, and the Prophet ﷺ exempted hired workers from liability for what is entrusted to them. Nevertheless, they were held liable through deliberation and independent legal reasoning, because people necessarily depend on their services. If craftsmen knew that they would be trusted without being held liable, and that their claims of loss would be accepted, they would readily take people’s property and boldly misappropriate it. This would become a means of destroying and wasting property, causing its owners considerable harm. They would have to choose between handing their goods over to craftsmen, thus exposing them to destruction, and withholding them despite needing work done on them, thereby suffering harm themselves. Not everyone knows how to sew his own garment or carry out every task for which he needs such services.

This was therefore a widespread matter of public concern that required consideration of both parties’ interests. People were thus encouraged to hand their goods over to craftsmen on the basis that the latter would be held liable. If, however, the goods’ destruction was established by proof, without negligence on their part, they would bear no liability, to spare them harm. Conversely, where destruction or loss was not established, they would be held liable, to spare the property owners harm.

This is Mālik’s position—may Allah have mercy on him: craftsmen are liable for goods in their sole custody which they claim have perished, when that is known only through their own statement. They bear no liability where loss without negligence is established by proof. All his followers agreed with him on this