harm to either of them, then the general purport of the Messenger’s statement, “There should be neither harm nor reciprocal harm” (1), prevents such harm. This is also supported by analogy with Allah’s saying: “Do not retain them to harm them and thereby transgress” [al-Baqarah 2:231]. This concerns a revocably divorced wife whom he wishes to take back before her waiting period has ended. Allah says, “Do not retain them to harm them and thereby transgress,” meaning, so that you fall into wrongdoing.

Thus, if we suppose that an agent accepted the agency at a season when people are actively buying and selling, then, when business later becomes slow, he revokes the agency; or if he sees that the well-known agents have become occupied with the matters for which they were appointed, he revokes the agency in order to force the principal to look for an agent and find none—then in this case we say that his revocation entails harm to others, and we do not permit it except for a valid excuse, such as inability or the like. But without an excuse, we say: the Prophet ﷺ said, “There should be neither harm nor reciprocal harm,” and the Noble Quran points to this great principle in Allah’s saying: “Do not retain them to harm them and thereby transgress.”

Accordingly, contracts fall into three categories: binding upon both parties, revocable by both parties, and binding upon one party but not the other. This is determined by what the legal evidence requires.

His statement, “A jointly owned undivided share may be pledged,” means property jointly owned in undivided shares. Thus, an undivided share may validly be pledged (2).

An example is a house jointly owned by two men, with each of them owning one half,