Help to a religious institution from a wealthy man who neglects his employees’ rights

Question

A wealthy man, who is a Muslim and regular in prayer and fasting, and who also travels far and wide with the Tablighi Jamaat for tabligh together with great scholars, has government project work carried out under him. He used to pay his employees every fifteen days, but now for seven years he has not been paying the employees their salaries at the fixed time, and the employees, distressed and losing hope, leave.

Answer

If the matter is indeed like this, then it is a great failing on the part of this gentleman, which falls within the bounds of oppression (zulm). Not fulfilling the rights of people (huquq al-‘ibad) and withholding the wages of labourers despite their completing their whole work, so that they leave in distress, is no trivial matter but an extremely grave one.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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