in a prescribed formula of worship; rather, whatever indicates that a contract has been concluded is a valid contract.

His statement, “Mutual consent between them is a condition”: After the author—may Allah have mercy on him—mentioned the definition of sale, he proceeded to mention its conditions. It would have been more appropriate, however, to mention its ruling first, because a definition leads to conception of the thing, and after conceiving it comes its ruling. Hence one of the well-known sayings of the scholars is: “Judging a thing is dependent upon properly conceiving it.” Ibn al-Qayyim said in his Nuniyyah:

Hastening to reject something of which you have not
Acquired full knowledge is a cause of deprivation.

A sale is permissible. We have previously stated that it is permissible according to the Quran, the sunnah, scholarly consensus, and sound reasoning. Yet it must fulfil certain conditions. Part of the wisdom of this Sacred Law is that it has assigned conditions to acts of worship, conditions to contracts, and conditions to charitable dispositions, because these conditions regulate the matters to which they apply. Otherwise, the matter would become chaotic. Conditions are therefore necessary for the proper order of legal rulings. Thus, sales have conditions, leases have conditions, endowments have conditions, pledges have conditions, and so on, so that rulings and contracts may be properly regulated.

Some people have claimed that these conditions, pillars, and obligations mentioned by the scholars are an innovation, and that it is not permissible to classify matters in this manner.

They are told: If we regard such classification as an act of worship by which we draw near to Allah Most High, then it is an innovation. But if our purpose is to make the sciences accessible to their students, then it is not an innovation. People have always authored works in chapters, sections, and books. Yes, if a condition is stipulated for which there is no evidence—