Fiqh-Based Requirements and Limits of Managerial Oversight of Employees’ Task Performance: An Analysis of Malik al-Ashtar’s Covenant

Purpose: This study explains the fiqh-based requirements and limits governing a manager’s oversight of employees’ task performance and derives managerial implications from Malik al-Ashtar’s Covenant. Design/Methodology/Approach: An applied qualitative design was used. Letter 53 of Nahj al-Balagha was examined through directed qualitative content analysis. Relevant passages were coded, compared with Qur’anic verses, hadith, and classical and contemporary fiqh sources, and classified as indicating obligation, prohibition, conditional permissibility, or an ethical-managerial recommendation. Findings: Four categories and fourteen rules were identified: managerial responsibility and the legitimate scope of oversight; information channels and observer qualifications; limits, verification, and protection of information; and action after oversight. A manager is responsible for reasonable follow-up, credible information sources, verification proportionate to the contemplated decision, and a fair response to established misconduct. Yet oversight must remain task-related and satisfy necessity, proportionality, the prohibition of unwarranted spying, protection of dignity, confidentiality, and the employee’s opportunity to respond. Even a report from an honest and trustworthy observer is not equivalent to conclusive proof. Originality/Value: The study moves beyond a general inventory of management teachings in Letter 53 by jointly analyzing the affirmative duty to oversee and the fiqh constraints on managerial access to and use of information. It proposes a framework of responsible and bounded oversight linking legitimate purpose, task-related scope, proportionate method, credible source, verification, fair decision, and lawful action.