Earning a living (kasb)

In the terminology kasb is an action that brings a benefit or removes a harm. It is distinct from craft (hirfa), which is narrower; profit (ribh) is its fruit; and wealth (ghina) is reached by it ^{1 2 1}.

Earning enough for oneself, one's dependants, one's debts and those whose upkeep is due is an obligation, on the hadith "it is sin enough for a man to withhold food from one who owns it". Earning beyond the bare minimum is recommended for giving to the poor or helping kin, and permitted for more wealth and comfort, provided religion, honour and manliness are kept. Earning for boasting and multiplying is disliked by the Hanafis and forbidden by the Hanbalis ^{2 3}.

The jurists agree that harmful need is disliked and arrogance from wealth is blameworthy, but differ on which state is better. Some prefer wealth, since ability is better than weakness; some prefer poverty, since leaving the world is better than being immersed in it; the Hanafi view is that poverty is higher; and some prefer the middle course ¹².

The majority of Sunni jurists hold that earning what one cannot do without is an obligation. Falling short of one's needs may come from idleness, from trust in God, or from asceticism. A report of Abu Qilaba says the Prophet ﷺ, asked about a man praised for prayer and fasting, said that whoever carries for him and works for him is better than him ^{12 13}.

The main sources of earning are four: agriculture, animal increase, trade profit, and the craft; the Hanafi al-Sarakhsi holds the four equal in permissibility. Jihad is the best kind of earning for the Hanafis, then agriculture above trade, then craft. Al-Shafi'i held trade the purest; al-Mawardi preferred agriculture as nearer to trust in God; al-Nawawi cited the report of al-Miqdam ibn Ma'dikarib that no one eats better than from his own hand ^{13 4}.

Asking others for money or benefit to which one has no right is forbidden in principle, for it involves complaint, self-abasement and harm to the one asked. It is allowed in necessity. One able to earn must earn, on the hadith that whoever begs while rich will come on the Day of Judgement with scratches on his face, and on the report of the two men who asked the Prophet while being strong and earning. A needy man unable to earn who can beg must beg rather than die ^{4 5}.

Most jurists hold that a poor relative is supported only if he is truly or legally unable to earn. The Hanafis require maintenance of parents even if they can earn, since work harms them ⁶.

The Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is, and one Hanbali narration, say that after the division of an insolvent's estate he need not earn or hire himself out to repay the rest, on the verse "if he is in hardship, grant him respite" and the report of Abu Sa'id. The Shafi'is add that if the debt arose from a sin, such as wrongfully destroying another's property, earning is required. The Hanbalis hold that he may be compelled, on the hadith that the Prophet sold Surraq for his debt; Ibn Qudama limits compulsion to one with a surplus. Al-Lakhmi of the Malikis allows it for a craftsman if earning was stipulated in the debt ^{6 7}.

Islam urges keeping children free of the duty of earning. Malik reports a saying of Uthman ibn Affan (may God be pleased with him) that a child should not be made to earn, since if he finds nothing he may steal. Al-Baji and Ibn Abd al-Barr agree ⁷.

The Hanafis, Shafi'is and some Malikis and Ibn Aqil among the Hanbalis dislike practising a craft such as tailoring in the mosque, though little work such as mending one's garment is not disliked. The Hanbalis forbid it, and the Hanafis exempt work that guards the mosque. Buying and selling in the mosque is disliked by the Malikis, the Shafi'is in the preferred view and some Hanbalis, on the hadith "if you see someone buying or selling in the mosque, say: may God not bless your trade" ^{8 9}.

Seeking what is lawful is an obligation on every Muslim. All unlawful earning is impure, though some is worse than others: money taken under a void contract is unlawful but less grave than seizure by force. Unlawful earning is taking the property of another without lawful permission, such as gambling, cheating, usurpation, denying rights, the fee of a prostitute, a soothsayer's fee, or the price of wine or pork. It must be returned to its owners, or if they are unknown, given to the poor or to public benefit; a poor man may take what he needs from it. Al-Nawawi, reporting al-Ghazali, says it may not be destroyed ^{9 10 11}.

Wealth inherited whose source is not known, with no sign of its being unlawful, is lawful by the consensus of scholars. The Hanafis say that if the dead man's earnings were unlawful, his heirs should return them to their owners or give them away; the Shafi'is say that if the heir knows there is something unlawful and does not know its amount, he sets aside the unlawful part by judgement ¹¹.