A school canteen manager taking supplier bonuses

A question about a school canteen manager taking supplier bonuses, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that a school canteen is run as a partnership and profit-sharing arrangement (mudaraba) and its manager is an agent holding it in trust, so he may not take supplier bonuses or gifts for himself and must return anything he has taken to the canteen. ¹

The questioner asked about exploiting a school canteen for personal gain. ¹

The Department answered that school canteens are, in legal terms, a partnership and profit-sharing (mudaraba) contract: the contributors pool the capital and then appoint someone to run the canteen and its affairs, with the profits set as known shares in the contract. ¹ It said the managing partner is like an agent whom the owners of the capital have chosen to trade on their behalf, so he holds the property in trust and must safeguard the interests of those who appointed him, citing a hadith narrated by al-Bukhari whose meaning is that each of you is a shepherd responsible for his flock, and quoting al-Shihab al-Ramli's gloss on Asna al-Matalib (2/257) that a partner is like an agent and must act in the interest of the others. ¹ It said the canteen manager may not take suppliers' extra allowances (bonuses) or accept gifts for his own benefit; otherwise he betrays his trust and consumes what is unlawful, and his sin is greater if he raised prices for the pupils, citing Surat al-Nisa' 4:29. ¹ It concluded that whoever has taken any of this must return it to the canteen, and the manager must be trustworthy and act in good faith toward those he works for so that he is free of liability. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3688, dated 27 February 2022. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.