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Furthermore, the Prophet (PBUH) also advised the Muslims to help one another to relieve
hardships, as narrated by Salim (r.a.):
“And he who relieved a Muslim from hardship Allah would relieve him from the
hardships to which he would be put on the Day of Resurrection…” (Sahih Muslim, Kitab
al-Birr wa al-silah wa al adab).
On other occasions, the Prophet (PBUH) also mentioned that we should leave our offspring
and dependants wealthy than to leave them destitute, hoping for other’s help. Saad bin Abi
Waqqas (r.a.) narrated that the Prophet (PBUH) said:
“Verily it is better for you to leave your offspring wealthy than to leave them poor asking
others for help” (Sahih Bukhari, Kitab al-Faraidh, Vol. 8, Book 80, no. 725).
Referring to the contexts of the above Qur’anic verse and prophetic precedents, Muslims are
encouraged to share the responsibilities in alleviating hardship and difficulties among others
as this is a social responsibility. Besides, the above legal texts promote the concept of mutual
co-operation as being introduced under the Takaful principle.
In addition to the above injunctions, the legality of Takaful could also be supported with
analogies (qiyas ) with several practices in Islamic law which is similar to it. These practices
are the concept of ʻaqilah (paternal relatives’ responsibility) in the payment of diyah (blood-
money in the case of unintentional murder), the payment of fidyah (ransom of prisoners of
war), the concept of nahd/nihd (sharing of food amongmembers of a group) and waqf (Islamic
charitable endowment). The application of the concept of ‘ aqilah in the payment of blood
money in case of murder was a customary practise among ancient Arabs whereby members
of the offender’s tribe shared the cost of blood-money payable to the family of the victim. This
has some similarities with the concept of Takaful. In both practices, the burden of loss is
shared proportionately among the members of a group. The contributions made by the
participants to the Takaful fund may also be equated with the contributions for diyah by the
ʻaqilah because both are made based on tabarruʻ to cover the loss. However, the only
difference is that the contributions for diyah are made after the loss, whereas in Takaful the
contributions are made in advance. Apart from that, the diyah paid to the victim or his/her
family could be considered similar to the compensation paid to the Takaful participant or
his/her beneficiaries.
Similar to diyah, the payment of fidyah was also practised by the Arabs since the pre-Islamic
period. When a tribe was defeated by another in a war, the prisoners of war became slaves of
the victor. The ‘aqilah or members of the prisoners’ tribe shared the responsibility to pay the
ransoms to the winning tribe to release their kinsmen. This collective mechanism, which
could be considered as an old system of social insurance, was adopted and adapted by the
Prophet (PBUH) during his time for the same purpose.