Sunday, 5 April 2026 (17 Shawwal 1447 AH)
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[Partners Bound by Their Conditions]

Date: 2026/02/16
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Question: Two partners in a business agreed and mutually consented that one of them would carry out some work that required incurring financial loss, and they stipulated conditions between them in this agreement. Then the one who undertook the work and incurred some financial loss in the project did not fulfill the conditions for the other partner. What is required in such a case, if they dispute and one of them demands that the project be dismantled while the other demands compensation for the loss?

Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success – is that what is obligatory is to give effect to what the two partners agreed upon of conditions in the agreement. This is what is required because of His saying, the Exalted: "O you who have believed, fulfill [all] contracts." [Al-Mā'idah:1], and because of what has come in the transmitted report: “The believers are bound by their conditions.”
As for when one of the two parties deliberately fails to uphold some of the conditions of the agreement, then the other party is not required in that case to fulfill (those conditions). The evidence for this is what is mentioned in the books of Sīrah concerning the peace treaties between the Messenger, May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace, and the polytheists: He (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) committed himself to grant fulfillment on the part of whoever fulfilled (the treaty) with him, but not from those who did not fulfill him (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) Allah, the Exalted, has said: "... except for those with whom you made a treaty at al-Masjid al-Haram. So as long as they are upright toward you, be upright toward them. Indeed, Allah loves the righteous." [At-Tawbah:7].
And when the polytheists from among the people of Mecca failed to uphold some of the conditions of the truce that had been concluded at al-Hudaybiyyah between the Prophet, (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), and the polytheists, he (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) marched against the polytheists in Mecca, conquered it by force, paid no regard to the conditions of the truce and did not give them any consideration. Abu Sufyan – who was the chief of the Quraysh polytheists – had come to Madinah to apologize to the Messenger of Allah, (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), and to the Muslims for breaching the conditions, but the Messenger of Allah (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) did not accept his excuse.
Yes; what is derived from this story is that when one of the two parties fails to uphold some of the conditions of an agreement, the contract of agreement is thereby nullified.
On this basis, the other party is not obliged to fulfill any of the conditions after the first party has failed to uphold some of them. This is what is indicated by the apparent meaning of the Book and the Sunnah, and praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2