- Sharia illustration of wakala is the substitute of a principal in order to perform a job by the substitute permitted by the principal.
- In other words, Wakala or agency is to substitute oneself by another person to dispose of certain assigned job or jobs.
- Islamic jurists have laid down five essential elements for a wakala to be complete and effective :
- Contracting parties: The principal and agent , Condition of being principal is that it should have full authority to perform the assigned job himself and holds perfect capacity, therefore, if a person does not have the authority to dispose of certain thing himself, he will have no authority to appoint an agent. Similarly, a person not holding "Perfect Capacity" – such as a minor or insane – is not authorized by sharia to appoint an agent.
- Subject of agency: It is the act for the performance of which the agent is appointed. It could also be described as the assignment entrusted to the agent by the principal.
- Sharia compliant: It is necessary that the scope of the agency does not crossover any sharia boundaries. For example, the agency will be invalid if awarded to collect the interest on loans, or for any other sharia repugnant act for that matter.
- Offer and Acceptance: An agency agreement will deem to have come into existence if an offer has been made by the principal and accepted by the agent.
- Un-conditionality: Sharia does not allow an agency contract to be conditional. For example, it will not be valid agency if a person appoints another as his agent to sell his car at a condition that his wife first buys a new one.
- Unlike Mudaraba, a wakeel does not have discretion for investment and must follow the principal’s instruction.
- Wakala gets terminated upon fulfillment of its purpose or upon the wakeel having breached any of the wakala terms.
- Wakeel returns principal’s capital with profit on end of wakala term.