I am a female student at Al-Bayan Institute for the preparation of female Quran teachers. The Institute asked us to sign a contract with the following terms: 1. Adherence to Islamic morals and performing prayers at their prescribed time. 2. Striving to seek Islamic knowledge and memorizing the Quran diligently with seriousness. 3. Promising to work for at least one year at the institution, memorization centre or women assemblies so as to encourage Islamic knowledge. What is the Islamic ruling on this? مارأيكم بشروط هذاالتعهد؟

Praise be to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family and his companions.

To proceed:

Some of these terms are obligatory, so stipulating them is a way of emphasizing them and other terms are desirable according to shari’a, so stipulating them makes them obligatory. Accepting these terms is regarded as making a commitment which must be fulfilled. This is according to Allah’s saying: “O you who believe! Fulfill (your) obligation.” [al-Maaidah: 1], and “and fulfill (every) Covenant. Verily! The covenant will be questioned about.” [al-Israa’: 34].
This is also supported by a hadeeth transmitted by Abu Dawood on the authority of Abu Hurayah (may Allah be pleased with him) who said that the Messenger of Allah (peace be on him) said: “And the Muslims will be held to their conditions”. Bukhari narrated this as a suspenededhadeeth. The hadeeth has many narrations supporting each other which were transmitted by a group of companions. In ‘Aaridhah, Ibn al-‘Arabi said: “it has many narrations and the Quran and consensus agrees to its wording and meaning.” Some of the terms which might be for the best interest of the institution may be inclusive of students’ interests. If the student commit to these terms then she should fulfil them.
And Allah knows best.

Your brother,

Dr. Khalid al-Mosleh