Is it permissible for an employee to take rest if he completes his task before the end of the period?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : The twenty-second question. Yes.
The Shaykh : Yes, what?
The questioner : The twenty-second question. I am an employee who was assigned a ten-day task, and I completed it in five days. Is it permissible for me to rest for the remaining days? Please advise us, and may Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : This is what he is asking, as you heard. He was assigned a ten-day task. And he completed the task. Right? In five days. Yes. So is it permissible for him to do so or not?
The answer: If this task can be completed in five days in a manner that is free from any defect, and he did so, then there is no blame on you. Because the purpose is to complete this work for which he was assigned.
But, our brothers, it is necessary for the mufti to be a mufti in one aspect and an educator in another. In the name of Allah. If we open this door for people and say that if you complete the work you were assigned for ten days in five days, there is no harm.
The questioner : What is your opinion?
The Shaykh : If we say that, what harm will open up for us? Every person who is assigned a task will make it his ambition to rush his work, and perhaps he will not complete it in the prescribed manner, just so he can enjoy the remaining days of his assignment.
Therefore, although we say that if a person performs the work in the required manner in a shorter period than he was assigned, we do not permit it. Yes. And we do not issue a fatwa to that effect. Because it is feared that it will be a means for the assigned workers to play with their assignments and not perform them in the required manner.
And a person should have knowledge and education, and look to the future, as is our custom. The Rightly Guided Caliphs. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) knew that the triple divorce is one. But when he saw that people had followed one another in this matter, what did he do? He ratified it and made it three.
So the Islamic Shari'ah, as it is knowledge, is also education and wisdom.
The questioner : What do you say?
The Shaykh : So a person must consider what consequences follow from what he says and what he rules.
The Shaykh : Yes, what?
The questioner : The twenty-second question. I am an employee who was assigned a ten-day task, and I completed it in five days. Is it permissible for me to rest for the remaining days? Please advise us, and may Allah reward you.
The Shaykh : This is what he is asking, as you heard. He was assigned a ten-day task. And he completed the task. Right? In five days. Yes. So is it permissible for him to do so or not?
The answer: If this task can be completed in five days in a manner that is free from any defect, and he did so, then there is no blame on you. Because the purpose is to complete this work for which he was assigned.
But, our brothers, it is necessary for the mufti to be a mufti in one aspect and an educator in another. In the name of Allah. If we open this door for people and say that if you complete the work you were assigned for ten days in five days, there is no harm.
The questioner : What is your opinion?
The Shaykh : If we say that, what harm will open up for us? Every person who is assigned a task will make it his ambition to rush his work, and perhaps he will not complete it in the prescribed manner, just so he can enjoy the remaining days of his assignment.
Therefore, although we say that if a person performs the work in the required manner in a shorter period than he was assigned, we do not permit it. Yes. And we do not issue a fatwa to that effect. Because it is feared that it will be a means for the assigned workers to play with their assignments and not perform them in the required manner.
And a person should have knowledge and education, and look to the future, as is our custom. The Rightly Guided Caliphs. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) knew that the triple divorce is one. But when he saw that people had followed one another in this matter, what did he do? He ratified it and made it three.
So the Islamic Shari'ah, as it is knowledge, is also education and wisdom.
The questioner : What do you say?
The Shaykh : So a person must consider what consequences follow from what he says and what he rules.
Source
دروس وفتاوى المسجد الحرام لعام 1406هـ - 4 — binothaimeen.net (28:09)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.