THE RULE
Nizam ad-dar, the rules
Hours, shifts, use of the common spaces, custody of the tools, internal sanctions and the manner of settling disagreements are governed by the niẓām ad-dār, the rules of the house, resolved by the majlis.
The niẓām is reviewed at least once a year, and any rafīq may propose an amendment. What matters, more than the frequency of the review, is who carries it out, since it is the young men who live under those rules who rewrite them, which is also how the house trains in self-government.
The vegetable harvest and the broom: the two shifts nobody skips. Studio rendering.
The perimeter within which the majlis is sovereign
Removed from the deliberation of the majlis are the rules on safety and hygiene at work, the prescriptions on the restoration of listed buildings and the obligations of law. The majlis decides everything else, and does not decide these.
The first rules lapse by themselves
The initial text is provisional and lapses by right at the first majlis in which the rifāq other than the signatories of the deed of constitution form the majority; there it is readopted, amended or replaced, and until the new resolution the provisional text remains in force. The automatic lapse prevents the text written by the founders from weighing for years more than those who come after.
The duties, in full
- — To observe the statutes, the niẓām ad-dār and the resolutions of the bodies of the house.
- — Loyalty towards one’s companions, care of the tools and the common spaces, participation in the service shifts resolved by the majlis.
- — Hours, table, lodging and common services are the same for everyone, and no outward distinctions of treatment are allowed.
Disagreements
Disputes among rifāq in contractual and associational matters are referred to the hayʼat at-taḥkīm, the arbitral panel of three members, under the rules annexed to the statutes. Excluded in every case are matters not within the parties’ power to dispose of, criminal matters, family law and the non-waivable rights of the worker.
Among the conditions that would count as a negative verdict on the project there is one that concerns precisely this: if the arbitration clause were never used, or were used and the outcome ignored by the parties, the internal settlement of disputes would be decorative, and with it a good part of the framework.