BUSINESS enterprise and market mechanism are more often than not governed by a set of rules and regulations which not only entail a system of profit and loss sharing but also lay down a clear cut mode of accountability, sureties, guarantees and the works.

So, a complex system evolves whereby business, be it in the form of trade and commerce, industry, agriculture or banking for that matter can be carried out smoothly and efficiently. At the core of every such structure, regardless of its size, so put up, lies a contract or innumerable contracts which define the work relationship between associates.

Islam recognises a contract and enjoins fulfilment of promises entered into through it, “O you who believe! When you contract a debt for a fixed period, write it down. Let a scribe write it down in justice between you…” (2:282; “O you who believe! Fulfil (your) obligations.” (5:01); “… fulfil (every) covenant. Verily, the covenant will be questioned about.” (17:34).

In order for a contract to be valid in Islam, certain conditions have to be satisfied. First and foremost, the contracting parties should be legally competent to enter into a contract. A person is legally competent if he or she is an adult and sane. A contract essentially involves an offer and an acceptance. Further, the subject matter of the contract must be lawful. Keeping in view public good and for the purpose of discouraging unethical investments, Islam has forbidden dealing in commodities declared haram i.e. commodities like pork, wine, drugs, etc., whose use and consumption has been forbidden to Muslims.

The agreement should not involve gharar or risk referring to transactions wherein the characteristics of the subject matter itself are not certain or clearly laid down be it with regard to form or quantity so such a deal involves an element of risk similar to gambling.

The Prophet (pbuh) has forbidden the purchase of the unborn animal in its mother’s womb, the sale of milk in the udder without measurement, the purchase of spoils of war prior to their distribution, the purchase of charities prior to their receipt, and the purchase of the catch of a diver. The last prohibition pertains to payment for whatever a diver may catch on his next dive. This has been prohibited because the payer does not know what he is paying for. Also, any contract wherein the element of riba, be it express or implied, is present has been strictly forbidden.

Riba literally means ‘increase.’ In Shariah, it is an addition over and above the principal amount i.e. paying money for the use of money. The Holy Quran and the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet expressly prohibit riba. “And that which you give in gift (to others), in order that it may increase (your wealth by expecting to get a better one in return) from other people’s property has no increase with Allah…” (30:39).

The contract should have clarity and the contracting parties should be honest and avoid any form of concealment; “And mix not truth with falsehood, nor conceal the truth…” (2:42). Islam has also forbidden entering into a transaction when it would prove detrimental to the interests of another person already entering the same. The Holy Prophet once said: “A person should not enter into a transaction when his brother is already making a transaction and should not make a proposal of marriage when his brother has already made a proposal except when he gives permission.”

On the whole, any condition or term of contract which does not conform to Islamic laws makes the contract invalid. It has been reported that Burairah came to Aisha and said, “My people (masters) have written the contract for my emancipation for nine ounces of gold to be paid in yearly instalments, one ounce per year; so help me.” Aisha replied: “if your masters agree, I will pay them the whole sum provided the allegiance will be for me.” Burairah’s masters refused the offer.

When the Holy Prophet came to know of this he told Aisha, “Buy Burairah and stipulate that her allegiance will be for them, as the allegiance is for the slave-freer.” Aisha did so. Later, the Holy Prophet addressed the people and said, “What is wrong with some people who stipulate things which are not in Allah’s laws? Any condition which is not in Allah’s laws is invalid even if there were a hundred such conditions. Allah’s rules are the most valid and Allah’s conditions are the most solid. The allegiance is for the slave-freer.”

Broadly categorised, the following are some forms of contract recognised in Islam.

Shirkah: In this form of contract, the contracting parties enter into a joint investment in a business enterprise and share profits and losses. The former is shared equitably in accordance with the agreement whereas the latter is shared in proportion to the capital invested.

Wadiah: This is a contract whereby any object or deposit is kept for safe keeping with a person who is not its owner. The depository in this case becomes the guarantor and guarantees return of the object or deposit to the depositor when he so demands it.

Bay: This is an agreement between two parties i.e. the buyer and the seller whereby ownership of property is transferred from one person to another at a price. This includes a contract of exchange whereby ownership of a commodity is transferred from one party to another in exchange of another commodity as agreed to between the parties, the same being trade by barter system.

Ijarah: It literally means ‘to give something on rent.’ This is of two kinds. Firstly, it refers to hiring of services of another person where wage serves as a consideration. Simply put, it covers the contractual relationship of an employer and an employee. The employer is referred to as ‘musta’jir’ whereas the employee is called ‘ajir’. The second case, which is analogous to leasing, refers to transferring the usufruct of a certain property to another on payment of rent. The lessor is called ‘mu’jir’ whereas the lessee is called ‘musta’jir’.

Ariyah: This is a gratuitous loan of an object to another for a specific period of time after passing of which the item so loaned is returned to the lender.

Rahn: Also called collateralised borrowing, a debtor in this case places a valuable asset in the custody of the creditor as collateral for debt incurred. In case of default in payment by the debtor, the creditor can dispose of the collateral.

MY neighbour in the upstart residential society where we built our home several years ago is a 73-year old man. His initials are NAT, but we can safely call him Nut — an entirely apt title as will be seen presently.

Last year, when he was building his house during the summer, he would park his Suzuki in the shade of the shisham we had planted back in 2000 and which today stands well over eight metres tall.

Full of himself, the man was forever blowing his own trumpet, but one day he paused in his spree of self-praise to tell me how much he appreciated the trees and creepers in our one-kanal (500 yards) home. Knowing well enough what people like him generally thought of trees in Pakistan, I half-jokingly said, “See that you don’t plant any in your own garden.”

That was cue enough for him. “When I worked for Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam,” he trumpeted, “I had all those 100-year-old trees chopped down.” Before he could finish his sentence, I completed it for him, “And you had them replaced with shrubbery.”

That was exactly what he had done and he admitted as much. Here was a man who had no sense a quarter century ago and here he was still completely ignorant crowing about his imbecility. I tried to tell him how a tree with a large biomass (such as an old peepal or banyan or any other) acts as a carbon sink and keeps global warming in check.

I tried also to tell him that we need trees and not just shrubbery because trees (and indigenous species, please) also harbour bird life. He found it hard to let me finish and would again and again cut in with a breathless, “Yes, yes, I know.”

I did say to him that if he really knew he would, one would not have cut down those magnificent trees that once crowded the Anjuman compound in downtown Lahore where they were hard at work clearing the city’s deadly smog. And, secondly, if he knew, he would not still be flaunting his criminal act. But there are people who can only get sense in their heads if you break open the skull and stuff it in. Nut, sadly, is another one of this teeming multitude. So full is this little man of himself that there is no room for anything else to get in.

Early this year, the society decided to turn the few open spaces into parks. Nut being the only one with time on his hands, the responsibility devolved upon him. And so it came to pass that one day in February I saw the one-acre spread near my home planted with, wait for it, araucaria, ashoka, bottle palm and some shrubbery — all imported species. Not one of these was either a shade tree nor was it indigenous.

The fool who had parked his car in the shade of our shisham was seeing to it that no other human should ever avail himself of the shade of a tree, nor too should birds of the wing find a place to nest. If he was incapable of recognising the importance of trees as carbon sinks, he was singularly heedless of the need to recreate habitat that had been destroyed when this part of rural Lahore went residential. The notion that shade was essential in the blistering heat of Lahore was farthest from his blighted mind.

I say ‘destroyed’ because 35 years ago this area was a pretty forest of largely acacia together with other indigenous species that harboured a vast population of birds. Indeed, this was the only part of Lahore that revelled in the mellifluous trill of the pied myna whose habitat extends in a narrow corridor from south Lahore to Kasur and on into India. So far as I know, this bird does not nest anywhere else in Lahore.

When the forest was destroyed, these birds, strictly arboreal in nesting habits, moved away, save some that took to nesting in electricity pylons. This area was home also to the pied hornbill, golden oriole, weaver bird, munia, red avadavat and a few dozen others. Of these, the last two are no longer met with in Lahore while the hornbill is restricted to Model Town, Aitchison College and Lawrence Gardens. The oriole now visits the linear plantation along the canal in the quieter parts of town.

For my part, I had always thought that establishing the parks would be our chance to restore a habitat we had mindlessly destroyed, but here was an ignorant fool intent upon doing exactly the opposite. And so I one day waylaid Nut to advise him on the illogic of the virtual monoculture of araucaria saying that these trees would be dead in a few years. His response: until they die, they will be there. Here was a criminal who had destroyed 100-year-old trees and was foolish enough to boast of that wanton act, who was simply incapable of seeing good sense.

I made a good deal of noise and got to plant some shisham, mulberry, peepal and amaltas saplings as well. If I had thought Nut would take a cue from this and mend his foolish ways, I was sadly mistaken. One who has wasted 73 years in blissful ignorance is not likely to learn anything at this stage.

In a way, I suppose, one can scarcely fault Nut. This man is merely another sheep in the vast herd of ignorant Pakistanis: he sees others do something and he mindlessly follows. He is as uninformed as everyone else, including those bureaucrats who headed in the past and do now the Parks and Horticulture Authority of Lahore. They are guilty of planting medians and open spaces with nothing but date palm, ashoka and some other useless imported species.

These people have lost good sense because they have cut the umbilical cord that tied past generations to the dharti. Their blighted vision sees no beauty in a spreading peepal or a neem; to them the kulfi-shaped ashoka is the tree for they do not know that it does not belong to Punjab — the same way many people do not realise that the eucalyptus is an imported species.

If the Pakistani state does not wake up now and place a moratorium on this mindless activity of replacing indigenous trees with imported species, future generations may never know what an acacia or an amaltas looked like. When these trees have all been replaced with ashoka and araucaria, those generations will be deprived of the beautiful trill of the pied myna and the honeyed song of the golden oriole. And without birdsong, a great loneliness of the spirit will overtake them. n

The writer is the author of several travel books.

odysseus@beaconet.net