by the attachment of rights to it. Whoever does not possess the right to dispose of a matter for himself cannot be validly appointed as an agent for it, such as a woman in the contract of marriage and its acceptance, a disbeliever in the marriage of a Muslim woman, and a child or insane person in all rights.

Section: A mukatab (a slave with a contract of manumission) may appoint an agent in matters he is entitled to dispose of himself. He may also serve as an agent for a fee (ju'l), because this is a form of earning wealth, and the mukatab is not prohibited from earning. He may not serve as an agent for another without a fee, unless with the permission of his master, because his benefits are like his tangible assets, and he is not permitted to give away his tangible assets without compensation. A slave may serve as an agent with the permission of his master, but he may not appoint an agent without his master's permission, even if he has been given general permission to trade, because permission to trade does not encompass the power to appoint an agent. The agency of a discerning (murahiq) child is valid if the guardian has granted him permission, because he is among those whose disposal of affairs is valid.

840 - Issue; He said: (Agency is permissible in buying, selling, demanding rights, manumission, and divorce, whether the principal is present or absent).

We do not know of any disagreement regarding the permissibility of agency in selling and buying. We have already mentioned the evidence for it from the Quran and the Sunnah, and because there is a pressing need for agency in this; for a person might be one who does not know how to sell or buy, or is unable to go to the market. He may possess wealth but not know how to trade with it, or he may know how to do so but lacks the time, or trading may not be appropriate for him because he is a woman or belongs to a group for whom trading is considered a disgrace, which would diminish his status. Therefore, the Shari'ah permitted it to fulfill a need and to realize the benefit of the human being who was created for the worship of Allah, the Glorified. Agency is permissible in hawala (transfer of debt), pledge (rahn), suretyship (daman), kafalah (guarantee), partnership (sharika), deposit (wadi'a), mudarabah (profit-sharing partnership), ja'ala (offering a reward for a service), musaqah (sharecropping), hiring (ijara), loaning (qard), settlement (sulh), bequest (wasiyya), gift (hiba), endowment (waqf), charity (sadaqa), rescission (faskh), and discharge (ibra'); because these are in the same category as selling regarding the need for agency, and thus the ruling of selling applies to them. We are not aware of any disagreement regarding any of these matters.