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Rent, fee or wage (ujra)

أجرة

Ujra, lexically and in law, is the counterpart of a benefit: what a worker receives for his labour, and what the owner of a thing receives for its use. 1 A rent may be anything that may serve as a price, whether goods, another benefit, or money, paid at once or deferred. A contract with an unknown rent, or with a rent that is part of the work done, such as hiring a man to skin a sheep for its hide, is not valid. 1 Wine and pork may serve as rent only for non-Muslims. 1 The details belong under the lease; taking a fee for acts of worship is treated under the call to prayer, pilgrimage and jihad. 1

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Development of law, theology and institutions

Summary

Ujra, lexically and in law, is the counterpart of a benefit: what a worker receives for his labour, and what the owner of a thing receives for its use. 1

Conditions

A rent may be anything that may serve as a price: goods, another benefit, or money paid at once or deferred. It must be known to both parties by pointing, by naming or by statement. A contract with an unknown rent is not valid, nor one whose rent is part of the work or of its product, such as hiring a man to skin a sheep for its hide. 1

Wine and pork

Wine, pork and the like may serve as rent only for non-Muslims. 1

Where the topic is treated

Rent is treated under the lease. The taking of a fee for acts of worship is treated under the call to prayer, pilgrimage and jihad; for division under division; for pledge and surety for rent under those contracts; and for price regulation under sales. 1

People and things also explored

Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)· Justice and uprightness (adl)· Contagion (adwa)· Pardon (afw) in purity, worship, contracts and penalties· Covenant (ahd) and the duty to keep it; oath by the covenant of God· Term, deadline (ajal)· Hired worker (ajir)· Stranger, outsider (ajnabi)

Sources

  1. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3) , p.1593
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Rent, fee or wage (ujra)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/ujra/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Biting and the liability for injury it causes (add)

In the lexicon, add is gripping a thing with the teeth and holding it. If a person bites another without right and a wound results, the biter must pay the damages for the wound, assessed as a just award by experts. If one man bites another's hand and the bitten man pulls it free so that the biter's front teeth fall out, most jurists hold that there is no liability, relying on a prophetic judgement in such a case; the Shafi'is limit this to a bitten man who chose the easiest means of release, and the preferred Maliki view requires compensation.