Muharamat - Prohibitions That Are Taken Too Lightly. Islamic book

Hiring someone and benefitting from his labour, then not paying him his wages

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) encouraged speedy payment of wages to people hired for their labour. He said: “Give the hired man his wages before his sweat dries.” (Reported by Ibn Maajah, 2/817; see also Saheeh al-Jaami’, 1493).

One form of oppression or injustice that is common in Muslim societies is the failure to give employees and workers their rights. This takes many forms, for example:

Denying an employee’s rights in totality, where the employee has no proof of his rights. He may have lost his dues in this world, but he will not lose them before Allaah on the Day of Resurrection. So the oppressor who consumed the money due to the victim will be brought forth, and his victim will be given some of his hasanaat in compensation (i.e. some of the oppressor’s good deeds will be added to his victim’s credit). If the hasanaat are not enough, some of the victim’s sayi’aat (bad deeds) will be added to the oppressor, then he will be thrown into Hell.

Not giving the employee his full rights. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “Woe to al-Mutaffifeen [those who give less in measure and weight (decrease the rights of others)].” [al-Mutaffifeen 83:1] One example of this is the action of some bosses who bring workers from their homelands with a contract to pay a certain wage. Once the people are committed and have started to work for him, he goes and changes the contracts, altering them to state a lower wage than the one actually agreed upon. The employees stay because they have no choice and have no proof of their rights; all they can do is complain to Allaah. If the employer is a Muslim and the employee is not, this lowering of wages is a way of turning people away from the Straight Path, and he will carry his sin.

Making the employee do extra work or put in longer hours, without paying him overtime or giving him any more than the basic salary.

Some bosses delay payment of wages and pay up only after much struggle, complaining, chasing and court cases. Their aim may be to make the employee give up his claim to his rightful wages and stop asking; or they may want to invest this money, perhaps by lending it for interest. Meanwhile, the poor employee cannot buy his daily bread or send anything home to his needy wife and children for whose sake he left to work overseas. Woe to those oppressors on that painful Day! Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Allaah says: ‘There are three whom I will oppose on the Day of Resurrection: a man who gives his word, swearing by Me, then breaks it, a man who sells a free man into slavery and keeps the money, and a man who hires another and benefits from his labour, then does not pay him his wages.” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, see Fath al-Baari, 4/447).