suggests that lending him out is invalid. What ought to be said, however, is that lending him out is valid, because a ruling follows its effective cause: it is established when that cause is present and ceases when it is absent. Accordingly, an exception should be made, according to the view we have mentioned, where the disbeliever does not intend to employ him directly.
His statement, “or game and the like to a person in consecration”: that is, it is not permissible to lend game to someone in a state of iḥrām. For example, a person has a gazelle, while a gazelle is forbidden to a person in iḥrām. Even if game belongs to the person in iḥrām, it is not permissible for it to remain in his possession. Thus, if someone lends another person some gazelles for display—for instance, a person in iḥrām expects an important visitor to pass by, such as a governor, a minister, or the like, and says, “Lend me the gazelles you have, so that I may place them on my farm for the minister or governor to look at”—this is not permissible. The reason is that it falls under Allah’s saying: “And do not cooperate in sin and transgression” [al-Mā’idah 5:2].
His statement, “and a young female slave to anyone other than a woman or a maḥram”: a young female slave may not be lent to a man unless he is a maḥram. Thus, if someone owns a young female slave who has a brother, and her brother says, “Lend me my sister, for I shall be receiving guests and need her assistance with the household,” this is permissible, because he is her maḥram and she is safe with him. Likewise, if a woman borrows her—for example, a man has a female neighbor who receives guests and asks him to lend her his female slave—this is permissible, because, as a general rule, one woman is safe with another. Exceptional cases carry no legal weight, neither here nor in the case of a maḥram. Even a maḥram may sometimes be tempted by Satan and commit an indecency with his female maḥrams, but the discussion concerns what generally and ordinarily occurs.
His statement, “a young female slave,” indicates that if she were not young, even if