How should our relationship be, as a group of sons, with our father in the factory that our father established and left, in which we work? Do we have a right to wages for the past work?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner: At the end of 1987, approximately, the father stopped working after 1987. We developed the work and increased its capital. Now all my brothers have reached the age of maturity, and all of us are now working in the same workshop and the same factory. So, we need a Shari'ah method to define our positions so that we may clear our father's account in this world and the Hereafter.
The Shaykh: Good, but this statement is not sufficient. When you were working in this job from 1987, as you say—okay, you are busy for a moment—were you working under a prior agreement between you and your father, or were you working as every righteous son works with his father, helping him with all the necessities of his life? The matter differs.
The questioner: We were working as righteous sons, helping in the work. Naturally, it varied according to [my situation]; I worked with him in 1982, my brother in 1987, my other brother in 1988, and my brother in 1993.
The Shaykh: Okay, I am not concerned with this detail. The important thing is that your answer now is confined to the fact that your work with your father was in the category of sons fulfilling their duty toward their father.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Okay, so where have you reached with this workshop, and what material benefit have you derived from it?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: It is the property of the father; all of it is the property of the father.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: And your work in this workshop is considered, with respect to your father, a voluntary gift from you to him. So, if you now wish to reach something of the right you have in it, that is from today onward, and no regard is given to the efforts of the past.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Is the answer clear?
The questioner: Very clear.
The Shaykh: Yes.
The Shaykh: Good, but this statement is not sufficient. When you were working in this job from 1987, as you say—okay, you are busy for a moment—were you working under a prior agreement between you and your father, or were you working as every righteous son works with his father, helping him with all the necessities of his life? The matter differs.
The questioner: We were working as righteous sons, helping in the work. Naturally, it varied according to [my situation]; I worked with him in 1982, my brother in 1987, my other brother in 1988, and my brother in 1993.
The Shaykh: Okay, I am not concerned with this detail. The important thing is that your answer now is confined to the fact that your work with your father was in the category of sons fulfilling their duty toward their father.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Okay, so where have you reached with this workshop, and what material benefit have you derived from it?
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: It is the property of the father; all of it is the property of the father.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: And your work in this workshop is considered, with respect to your father, a voluntary gift from you to him. So, if you now wish to reach something of the right you have in it, that is from today onward, and no regard is given to the efforts of the past.
The questioner: Yes.
The Shaykh: Is the answer clear?
The questioner: Very clear.
The Shaykh: Yes.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.