The primary source of motivation for this study is to identify alternative institutions that are different from the existing ones for regulating employment in an economy where the number of professions is limited, agricultural production is widespread, all sorts of productions rely on manpower, and the state enjoys a restricted role in creating employment, and to clarify the effects of these institutions on employment. In other words, this study has embarked on a search for a new and third-sector-centered paradigm in employment. First, the study evaluated society’s perceptions of the third sector from a critical standpoint and examined the restrictive consequences of these perceptions. On the other hand, the power of the third sector to construct and establish coexistence was discussed in terms of the Ottoman era Mostar waqfs and attention was drawn to its potential for creating employment. The Ottoman society’s visions regarding the third sector were also demonstrated in this process. Civil society organizations that produce goods or services in a broad spectrum either in the public or private sector necessarily engage in production for the sake of social utility instead of individual profits/utility maximization. The moral and economic potential of the third sector that needs sustainable and qualified human resources in its production operations, even if conducted for the sake of society, was presented to the comprehension of modern society from a historical projection. An inquiry into the structure of employment in the Ottoman Empire, which is identified with Islam, presents significant opportunities both to promote the comprehensibility of a historical phenomenon and to trace the footsteps of employment in Islamic economic thought.