Wages

1) Ibn ‘Umar said: The Messenger of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “Pay the labourer his wages before drying up of his sweat.”

2) In explanation of the verse “after payment of legacies which you make and debts” (lV:I2) it is said that the Apostle of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) paid loan before the legacy. The Qur’an says: “Verily, Allah enjoins upon you to pay back trusts to their owners”. So, it has been said: “The repayment of trust is more important obligation than to make a will voluntarily.” The Prophet (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “No sadaqa is valid but that after which a man is self-sufficient” And lbn ‘Abbas said: “A slave should not make a will but with the permission of his master.” And the Apostle of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “The slave is responsible for the property of his master.”

3) It is narrated on the authority of Sha‘bi that one among the citizens of Khurasan asked him: “O Abu ‘Amr! Some of the people amongst us who belong to Khurasan say that a person who freed his bondswoman and then married her is like one who rode over a sacri­ficial animal.” Sha‘bi said: Abu Burda b. Abi Musa narrated it to me on the authority of his father that verily the Messenger of Allah (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) said: “There are three (classes of persons) who would be given a double reward. One who is amongst the People of the Book and believed in his apostle and (lived) to see the time of Apostle Muhammad (Sall Allah-o-alaihe wa sallam) and affirmed his faith in him and followed him and attested his truth, for him is the double reward; and the slave of the master who discharges all those obligations that he owes to Allah and discharges his duties that he owes to his master, there is a double reward.  And a man who had a bondswoman and fed her and fed her well, then taught her good manners, and did that well and later on granted her freedom and married her, for him is the double reward.” Then Sha‘bi said: “Accept this hadith without (spending) anything. Formerly a man was (obliged) to travel to Medina even for a smaller hadith than this.”

Source: Economic Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): A Select Anthology of Hadith Literature on Economics, Muhammad Akram Khan. Republished with permission.