A Contract Is a Word and a Mindset, Not a Paper and a Signature

Occasion: Fajr khatira delivered on 19 October 2025 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

The Doctor opened his khatira with a supplication that Allah ease our affairs, guide us to our paths and make us firm with the firm word in the life of this world and in the Hereafter. Then he said:

A Common Human Principle

The opening of Sūrat al-Māʾida is, for me, something striking; for the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, opens it with a human principle shared among all people that must be observed at every level: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ ("O you who believe, fulfil your contracts"). And unfortunately, people's confining the concept of contracts to financial procedures signed on paper is a matter that needs reconsideration.

A Contract Is a Word Before It Is a Paper

We have the marriage contract, and it was not signed in earlier times, in the time of the Prophet ﷺ; there was no petition, no court, no witnesses signing papers, no procedures of proof regarding identity and the like, but rather it was a word, and the jurists permitted it in the wording of offer and acceptance: "I have married you," "I accept," and the matter was finished. This contract that was built upon this word, and its like among other contracts: I sold and I bought; I employed you, so I took the job.

These are tangible contracts that take place in worldly dealings between people, with numbers going and coming and worldly benefits resulting from them. But the matter in our life is wider than that, when you see the saying of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ أُحِلَّتْ لَكُم بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ إِلَّا مَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ﴾ ("O you who believe, fulfil your contracts. Lawful for you are the grazing livestock, except what is recited to you").^[1] And he asked: what is the link? What is the link between ﴿أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ and then you see immediately ﴿أُحِلَّتْ لَكُم بَهِيمَةُ الْأَنْعَامِ﴾? What is the relation? You see this before you and let your imagination roam over everything that could be among the contents of contracts, whether the contracts concern what is procedural or what is moral.

The Contract Between Us and Allah

Then he asked: where is the contract between us and Allah, glory be to Him? What is its significance? What is its text? And what wording results from it? You see that "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah" is like the contract that you sign with the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, that I have surrendered myself to You, O Lord of the worlds, with this delegation.

And he said that we agree very much, and we have repeated this talk often, that any employee who joins any company signs the contract, and sometimes it contains a condition that you must avoid any conflict with other companies, and that you not do anything that conflicts with the interest of the institution you work for. So if I have said to Allah, blessed and exalted: I have surrendered myself to You, then there is nothing in my life that I could, even as a mere possibility, do in my life that conflicts with the root of the divine legislation. This is the rule, and the idea rests on building the mindset in us, that is, building the mindset of surrender to Allah, glory and exaltation be to Him.

Building the Mindset: Maintaining Family Ties as an Example

And he said that yesterday he was thinking about the traditional call-to-Allah discourse that tells people: "Maintain family ties" and so on, and the difference between it and the discourse that roots a mindset that the Prophet ﷺ builds. For he roots the mindset of the one who maintains ties, and says, for example, what means that whoever would be pleased to have his provision expanded and his life span extended, let him maintain his family ties.^[2] Is this sentence merely good news of blessing in provision and life, or does it deal with a mindset that seeks benefit, and so deals with it from that standpoint?

Then came his saying ﷺ: «من كان يؤمن بالله واليوم الآخر فليصل رحمه» ("Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, let him maintain his family ties"). The same requirement, the same content, but the entry into this requirement was by another logic; it deals with the people of faith who deal directly with Allah, who neither hope nor ponder, and whose minds are not tied to any worldly effect. And accordingly came the direct word: "Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day," let him maintain his family ties, let him speak good or remain silent.

Likewise when the Prophet ﷺ roots the concept that the womb of kinship will come on the Day of Resurrection, and that the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, reassures it that He will give it justice on that day,^[3] with what mindset is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ dealing? With the mindset of the one who fears the consequences of actions. So I have one who fears, and I have one who hopes, and I have one who calculates, and I have such-and-such a person… and so on. So you see that the prophetic texts, proceeding also from the Qur'anic teaching, deal with the mind of the human being and shape it.

Fulfilling the Contract Is a Legislative Principle, Not a Worldly Interest

So when the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, says to me: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ ("O you who believe, fulfil your contracts"), then fulfilling contracts is a worldly interest that has worldly benefits resulting from it, we agree. Then the divine command comes to make it a legislative principle.

And he gave an example of that: I have a commitment to the contract as long as an interest results from it. We agreed that I supply you with such-and-such a product for such-and-such an amount, and we made this agreement. Then the price rose in the whole market while I am bound by the agreement to supply you, so I say to you: by Allah, so-and-so is offering me such-and-such. So you say to me: this is a commitment, and I committed and built all my interests on this. So I say: no, this talk does not bind me, because the interest will diminish. But the Qur'anic principle should not be like that.

And he said that it is enough for him to say that Allah is not merely giving you a command of obligation, but is rooting a mindset for building this work in your life, that it be in your mind, that you not fall short of it or retreat from it, by your personal choices, and not by feeling the watch of the law or the authority of the judge who will strike at the right time. There is no policeman and no officer standing over the details of the life we walk in to say to you: come here, I will arrest you. No, rather it is the conscience and the inner restraint in our souls that regulates the movement of life.

Covenants That Are Not Written

Then he repeated: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَوْفُوا بِالْعُقُودِ﴾ ("O you who believe, fulfil your contracts"); the contracts we agreed upon implicitly and morally with the neighbours when we live next to one another, and the contracts we agreed upon with the employers we work with, and the contracts we agreed upon with our wives in our homes, or the husbands on the part of the women. And the contracts we agreed upon not only while we buy and sell, but the covenant of friendship that you established with a man who entrusted you with his bread in his home, and let you into his house, and spoke to you at ease, and disclosed his secrets to you, and spoke with you simply as though you were himself or his soul or his brother to whom he speaks. This is a contract.

And the Prophet ﷺ roots a mindset that respects agreements, whether tangible or moral. And Allah, blessed and exalted, knows best.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: al-Māʾida 1. In the transcript it is «وحلت لكم», and «أُحِلَّتْ» has been recorded as the form of the verse. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker related the first ḥadīth by meaning, and its wording in the two Ṣaḥīḥs is: «مَنْ أَحَبَّ أَنْ يُبْسَطَ لَهُ فِي رِزْقِهِ، وَيُنْسَأَ لَهُ فِي أَثَرِهِ، فَلْيَصِلْ رَحِمَهُ». And the ḥadīth «من كان يؤمن بالله واليوم الآخر فليصل رحمه» is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī within the ḥadīth «فليقل خيرًا أو ليصمت». ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker mentioned that Allah swears to the womb of kinship that He will give it justice, and this wording has not been verified; what is established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs is that the womb of kinship stood and sought refuge with Allah from severance, and He said to it: «نعم، أما ترضين أن أصل من وصلك وأقطع من قطعك» ("Yes; are you not pleased that I maintain whoever maintains you and sever whoever severs you?"), and it said: Yes indeed. So the text was formulated by the verified meaning.