whether he had arranged a mukhāraja with them or not.

The benefit of a mukhāraja is that once the slave has handed over the amount agreed upon with his master, he is then free: he may devote the rest of his time to seeking knowledge, relax at home, or carry on working and keep whatever exceeds the set sum.

By contrast, when a person sponsors hired laborers, brings them into the country, and tells them, “Each month you must pay me such-and-such an amount of dirhams,” this is unlawful, oppressive, and contrary to state regulations. Any contract based on that arrangement is invalid, and the employer is entitled to none of the money he has forced upon those workers, for a laborer might toil and strain yet still fall short of the quota imposed by his sponsor—he might even earn nothing at all. That is clear injustice.

Slaves, however, are the property of their owner; whatever wealth they possess, and everything in their hands, already belongs to him.

This particular slave of Abu Bakr had been put on such an arrangement: he was to bring Abu Bakr a fixed amount each day. One day the slave presented some food to Abu Bakr, and he ate it. The slave then said, “Do you know what that was?”

He replied, “What was it?”

The slave said, “It is the payment I received for fortune-telling I once performed in the pre-Islamic days of ignorance. I was no real soothsayer—I merely duped the man—but I met him today and he gave me this.”

Payment for soothsaying is forbidden, whether the fortune-teller is actually skilled or merely pretending, for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited hulwān al-kāhin—the soothsayer’s fee.