which must be understood: “Every prohibited contract produces none of its legal effects.” Thus, for example, in an invalid sale, the buyer does not acquire ownership of the commodity, nor does the seller acquire ownership of the price. Likewise, if a man hires a woman in order to commit unlawful sexual intercourse with her, this does not make her private parts lawful to him, because the lease is invalid and because unlawful sexual intercourse is prohibited by explicit textual evidence and scholarly consensus.
His statement, “and playing the flute,” means using a flute—that is, an instrument of amusement. By analogy, this includes all musical instruments. Thus, if someone hires another person to play an instrument or to play the flute, the lease is prohibited and invalid, and the performer is not entitled to payment. We say to him: “You are entitled to nothing,” and we say to the one who hired him: “You owe no payment,” because the lease is invalid.
If the flute-player then demands the customary wage, saying, “Invalidate the lease, but give me the customary wage because I performed the work,” we say to him: “You are entitled to no payment.” The question then remains concerning the hirer. If we say, “You owe no payment because this was an unlawful activity,” then this man has gained both the service and the payment, and it is not appropriate that we combine two compensations for him. Therefore, we say: the payment is taken from the hirer but is not given to the flute-player; rather, it is placed in the public treasury.
As for saying to the hirer, “You owe nothing,” and to the flute-player, “You are entitled to nothing,” this involves a degree of injustice. So it should be said: “O flute-player, you are entitled to nothing; you must repent to Allah and seek His forgiveness.” And to the hirer: “We shall take the payment from you, because you entered into a contract undertaking to pay it, and so we hold you to it. But we do not give it to the flute-player, because it is compensation for something unlawful; rather, we place it in the public treasury.”
His statement, “singing,” with the extended vowel, not with the shortened vowel, because “wealth,” with the shortened vowel—