Chapter: The partner’s disposal of the partnership assets and the obligations that follow

When two people enter into a shirkah ʿinān (a capital partnership limited to a particular commodity), whether that commodity is precisely identified or merely described, neither of them may sell it without the consent of the other. This ruling applies to every partnership formed over a specific, known item that they purchase together.

By contrast, shirkah mufāwaḍah is an unrestricted partnership in which each party grants the other full authority to act as he sees fit. Accordingly, whatever either partner buys or sells from the kinds of merchandise in which they trade is binding upon the other.

Their joint living expenses are to be taken from the partnership capital, since they are both working in the enterprise. If, however, one partner’s outlay is higher than the other’s—because of dependents or any other reason—each man’s personal and family expenses are calculated separately.

Any work that one of them carries out on his own outside their joint trade—such as taking on a qirāḍ (profit-sharing investment) that does not distract him from the partnership, or cultivating land by himself—entitles the other partner to no share at all; it remains the sole property of the one who performed the work, just like an inheritance.