A servant is not getting her salary or food

Question

Praise be to Allah.

Respected sister

We
are grieved by your suffering and by the hardship and difficulties that you
are encountering in your work and your life with your employers. As you
asked about Islam in this situation that you are suffering, what does any of
that treatment have to do with Islam? What kind of Islam is there when the
employer eats his fill and the servant goes hungry?

Indeed, what kind of Islam is there when a person eats his fill and his
neighbour goes hungry?

Indeed, what kind of Islam is there when a person eats his fill and his
mount on which he works and the pets in his house go hungry, and he does not
feed them?

The
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Feed
them from what you eat, and clothe them from what you wear.” Narrated by
Muslim, 3007.

He
also said: “A slave is entitled to his food and clothing, and he should not
be burdened except with that which he can bear.”

Narrated by Muslim, 1662

It
was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “If the servant of
one of you prepares his food, let him make him sit down and eat with him,
and if he does not do that, then let him take a morsel; he should hand it to
him.”

Narrated by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad, 12/292, no. 7338. The
commentators said: Its isnaad is saheeh according to the conditions of the
two shaykhs (al-Bukhaari and Muslim).

Our
advice to you is not to remain silent about your wrongful treatment, and to
ask for your wages openly and clearly; when doing that, you should use words
that are gentle and polite. What this family is doing of delaying your wages
and depriving you of food is the worst and most reprehensible type of
mistreatment, in which a rich person takes advantage of a poor worker and
delays giving him his wages and his dues for the longest possible time for
no reason but heedlessness or for the deliberate purpose of causing harm.

It
was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Allah, may He be
exalted, says: ‘There are three whose opponent I shall be on the Day of
Resurrection … [One of whom is] a man who hired a worker and availed himself
of his labour to the fullest extent, but did not give him his wages.’”
Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2270.

It
was narrated from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) from the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), that he said: “The
Muslim is the brother of his fellow-Muslim. He does not wrong him, let him
down or despise him.”

Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh, 2564.

Woe
to those tyrannical people who exploit others and consume their wealth
unlawfully, when what they should do is treat them kindly and be generous
towards them over and above what they give them as wages, in order to help
them bear the costs of living in this world, and not merely give them their
rights.

So
what do you think if they transgress against those rights and dues, and
consume them, or delay them with no justification? Allah, may He be
glorified and exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And
those who, when an oppressive wrong is done to them, they take revenge.

The
recompense for an evil is an evil like thereof, but whoever forgives and
makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah. Verily, He likes not the
Zalimoon (oppressors, polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.).

And
indeed whosoever takes revenge after he has suffered wrong, for such there
is no way (of blame) against them.

The
way (of blame) is only against those who oppress men and wrongly rebel in
the earth, for such there will be a painful torment.

And
verily, whosoever shows patience and forgives that would truly be from the
things recommended by Allah.”

[ash-Shoora
42:39-43].

If
the contract under which you are working stipulates that the cost of your
food is to be borne by the people for whom you are working, or if the
general custom dictates that, in that case there is no blame on you for what
you eat or drink without the knowledge of the family for whom you are
working, because that is your right as agreed upon with them.

But
if the contract states that you are to bear the costs of your food and
drink, or this is the general custom, then the basic principle is that you
should supply your food at your own expense.

In
the event that you do not receive your wages or they are delayed, it is
permissible for you to eat (from their food) on a reasonable basis, in order
to meet your needs if you do not have any money with which you can buy
food.

And
Allah knows best.