Introduction to Wadee’a Deposits [Diwan Press, Stralsund, 1435 ]

From two source translations –

The Book of Deposits and Safekeeping (Kitab

al-Wadee’a from al-Mudawwana al-Kubra) of the fiqh of

Imam Malik and the mujtahids of Ahl al-Madina al-

Munawwara, and Bab al-Wadee’a from Al-Qawaneen al-

Fiqhiyya by Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn

Juzayy al-Kalbi –

it is clear that the transaction of wadee’a – depositing something with another – was not only a permitted sunna but something which was undertaken by all at a community level and also as a means of facilitating trade.

Both texts are accepted by all fuqaha and were also the undisputed basis of all transactions in the territories under the jurisdiction of the fiqh of the ahl al-Madina before the onset of democratic Islamic legalism – i.e. the invention of the mongrel law of fiqh as-sunna whereby the four madhhabs were mixed up into a hotchpotch legal soup and unhinged from amr, or offered in their plurality so that anyone might pick and choose personally his own favourite ahkaam; or worse, the propagation of a basically hadith-based madhhab in which all the hadiths have equal status and no discrimination is made between those which generally should be acted upon at a community level and those which are directed at particular persons in particular situations.

The first text is taken from al-Qawaaneen al-Fiqhiyya of Muhammad ibn Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Juzayy al-Kalbi the great faqih and ‘aarif who died a shaheed at the battle of Tareef in 741 AH. The second is taken from al-Mudawwana al-Kubra, the work compiled by Sahnun at-Tanukhi on the judgements of Imam Malik himself after his discussions with the great mujtahids of the Ahl al-Madina al-Munawwara who issued from Imam Malik may Allah be pleased with him – namely Ibn al-Qasim, Ibn Wahb, Ashhab and Asbagh. It is here that we find everything which Imam Malik chose to leave out of his Muwatta. Wadee’a is first and foremost a transaction of amaana – i.e. one based on trust, and not something for which payment is normally requested. In a healthy, flourishing community of Muslims, any storage of gold and silver coins would normally be undertaken as an amaana by the authorities – i.e. the Rais,  Amir, the Sultan or the Khan: just as they would finance the activities of the Official Mint, producing dinars and dirhams with their legitimate seal, they would also provide facilities for the safekeeping of the coins prior to distribution. However, mints and the corresponding facilities for storage of gold and silver have generally disappeared since the introduction of paper money and the cancer of riba entered Egypt via Muhammad Abdou with the support of Lord Cromer. We now find ourselves in an interim situation: in the light of the growing movement away from the ribawi paper, plastic or electronic money back to halal gold dinars and silver dirhams, the number of wakalas – agencies for the distribution of these newly minted coins – is growing. As they grow, the need for secure storage also grows. As mentioned explicitly in the text of Ibn Juzayy, it is permitted to charge ‘rent’ when one takes up space in one’s own premises to store deposits of gold and silver. The hukum of wadee’a thus encompasses the renting of premises for the securing of gold and silver – both bullion or minted coins. Such places of deposit shall thus play an important part in the reestablishment of a bimetallic, trade-based economy until the inevitable return of the Osmanli- or Mughal-type mints and storage facilities which were financed by the Bayt al-Mal.