Chapter on Offering a Promised Reward (jiʿālah) for Going to War
Mālik said with regard to the promised rewards (jiʿāl) connected to the military detachments: the practice is that the man who remains behind assigns a reward to the one who goes out. People have long acted in this way, and there is no harm in it so long as both men belong to a single dīwān (military register), for together they are responsible for guarding the frontier posts. He considered it reprehensible, however, if they were not enrolled in the same dīwān.
What Mālik means is that a man may say to his companion who is listed in the same dīwān, “Take my tour of duty and I will take yours, and in addition I will give you such-and-such,” and similar arrangements. Mālik disliked that a man should hire out himself or his horse in the path of Allah, and he likewise disliked the governor’s granting him a promised reward on the condition that he advance upon a fortress and fight. He did not, however, object to the stipendiary soldiers (ahl al-ʿaṭāyā) taking whatever they receive in this manner. A number of scholars from Madinah and elsewhere disapproved of jiʿālah altogether; in their view it is impermissible for someone to go on an expedition for a payment he takes from one who stays behind, because the combatant is already entitled to a share of the booty, whereas the one who pays him is not. How, then, could an additional reward become due to him for something he does for the sake of himself, his religion, and his worldly life?
Jihād is an obligation, and whoever performs it has merely discharged his duty. When necessity arises, mutual assistance is allowed, but not in the form of a wage contract or a payment accepted in lieu of fighting. Anyone who has accepted such a payment must return it, and instead he is to receive his allotted share of the spoils. It is permissible, however, to accept a reward from the ruler, for that forms part of the combatant’s rightful due. Likewise, there is no objection if a fighter hires another to accompany him in battle, nor is there any blame on the one who leases out his services for that purpose.