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Chapter
24:
Matters relating to Service (Hadith -- The
Traditions):
(Note:
The superscript-numbers [e.g., intention2]
that
appear in the text [in
pink]
refer to the numbers of the explanatory footnotes that
appear at the end of each Hadith
[Tradition].)
1
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
said:
"Allah did not raise a
prophet but he pastured goats."
His companions said, And thou?
He said:
"Yes! I used to pasture them
for the people of Makkah for some
carats."1
(B. 37 : 2.)
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1
Qarat is the same as carat, but its weight
is said to be four grains, a carat being 3.5 gr. It
is in some parts a twenty-fourth, and in others a
twentieth, part of a dinar. The word
ra`a signifies both he pastured the cattle
and he ruled. Looking after the welfare of
animals is thus connected with devotion to the
welfare of humanity.
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2
Abu Mas`ud said,
When the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be
on him, commanded us to give in charity, one of us went to
the market and carried a load for which he got a
mudd, and some of them are millionaires today. (B. 24
: 10.)
3
Abu Musa reported that the Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, said:
"The faithful treasurer who
pays what he is ordered with a willing heart is one of
those who give charity." (B. 37 : 1.)
4
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, said:
"Muslims shall be bound by
the conditions which they make."2
(B. 37 : 14.)
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2
The direction contained in this hadith is of a
general nature and relates to all contracts,
subject to the basic rule that no condition opposed
to the law of Islam is valid. Bukhari mentions this
hadith in the book entitled "Services" to show that
the relation between master and servant is a
contract in reality.
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5
`A'ishah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, and Abu Bakr employed a man of the Bani Dil as a guide,
a clever man, and he followed the religion of the
disbelieving Quraish, so they made over to him their riding
camels and told him to come to them with their riding camels
at the cave of Thaur after three nights on the morning
following the third night.3
(B. 37 : 4.)
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3
The hadith relates to the Holy Prophets's flight to
Madinah, and shows, along with h. 7, that either of
the contracting parties in the relation of master
and servant may be a non-Muslim.
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6
Khabbab said,
I was a blacksmith in the days of ignorance, and I had a
debt due from `As ibn Wa'il. So I came to him demanding it.
He said, I will not give it to thee until thou deniest
Muhammad. I said, I will not deny even if Allah cause thee
to die and thou art then raised to life. (B. 34 :
29.)
7
Ibn `Abbas said, reporting on the authority of the
Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him:
"The most worthy of things
for which you take a remuneration is the Book of
Allah."4
And Ibn Sirin said . . . :
People paid remuneration for
computing by conjecture the quantity of fruit. (B. 37 :
16.)
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4
Service rendered, of whatever kind it might be,
brought a remuneration, and it made no difference
that the service was rendered in connection with
the Book of Allah. For instance, a person who
taught the Holy Qur'an was entitled to
remuneration; so was a person who wrote the Holy
Qur'an or did any other service in relation to the
Holy Book.
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8
Ibn Sirin saw no harm in the remuneration of the commission
agent.
And Ibn `Abbas said, There is no harm that one should say,
Sell this cloth for me and
what thou obtainest over such and such an amount, it
shall be for thee. (B. 37 : 14.)
9
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, said:
"Allah says, There are three persons
whose adversary in dispute I shall be on the day of
resurrection : a person who makes a promise in My name then
acts unfaithfully, and a person who sells a free person then
devours his price, and a person who employs a servant and
receives fully the labour due from him then he does not pay
his remuneration. (B. 34 : 106.)
10
Ibn `Umar said,
I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah
be on him, say:
".............And the third
man said, I employed labourers and I paid them their
remuneration with the exception of one man -- he left his
due and went away. So I invested his remuneration in a
profitable business until it became abundant
wealth."5
(B. 37 : 12.)
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5
This is part of a long hadith, according to which
three men were overtaken with a severe affliction
from which God delivered them because of some good
which each had done. The good in this case was that
the man did not allow the due of a labourer to lie
idle, and made over to him immense wealth instead
of the paltry remuneration which he
demanded.
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11
Abu Musa said,
I went to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, and with me were two men from among the Ash`aris. I
said, I did not know that they wanted to be taken into
service. He said: "We do not or shall not appoint a man who
desires to be so appointed."6
(B. 37 : 1.)
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6
This simply shows that the Holy Prophet made the
best selection from among those whom he deemed to
be fit for service, and would not take a man simply
because he approached him while another did not. As
v. 4 shows, it is not forbidden to ask for a
certain service.
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12
Abu Humaid said,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
appointed from among the Azd, a man, called Ibn al-Utbiyyah,
for the collection of zakat. When he came, he said, This is
for you and this was given to me as a gift. He (the Prophet)
said:
"He should have sat down in
the house of his father or the house of his mother, then
he should see whether a gift is given to him or
not."7
(B. 51 : 17.)
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7
A public servant cannot take anything as a gift. He
is entitled only to his wages.
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13
Abu Hurairah said,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, stood up among us, and he spoke about
dishonesty and he spoke of its enormity and spoke of the
enormity of its commitment.
He said:
"I should not see any one of you on
the day of resurrection, there being on his neck a goat
bleating, there being on his neck a horse neighing, so he
should cry out, O Messenger of Allah! come to my succour;
and I would say, I do not control aught for thee, I
delivered the message to thee."8
(B.56 : 189.)
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8
The mention of a horse is followed in the hadith by
the mention of a camel and that of gold and silver
and billets in similar words. The condition
described here relates to the resurrection, and
hence it speaks of spiritual experience in physical
terms, the significance being that every
dishonesty, great or small, shall ultimately be
brought to light and punished.
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