with pebbles or with anything else, the lot is valid. The more prudent course, however, is to write each partner’s name on a slip, gather the slips, fold them, and hand them to a person who was absent and has not seen them. He is instructed to draw out the slips and place each one on a particular share; whichever share bears a man’s name belongs to him.

If one partner offers the other the choice and they both agree and disperse, the partition becomes binding.

If either partner later claims that a mistake occurred in a division they themselves carried out and that they had already testified their satisfaction with, his claim is disregarded; by accepting the division as effected, he has bound himself to it, and his approval of any excess that may have fallen to his partner is enforceable against him.

Should he allege an error in a division performed by a divider appointed by the judge, or by a divider the two partners themselves had nominated, his claim will be accepted if he produces evidence; otherwise, the one who denies the error must swear an oath, for the default assumption is that no error exists. If evidence of the mistake is established, it is admitted and the partition is annulled, for his earlier silence rested on the outward appearance of the divider’s correctness; once proof of error arises, he may reclaim what he lost through that mistake.

If both partners claim that a given item belongs to each of them, they must each swear an oath and the partition is nullified, because the disputed property never truly left their joint ownership and neither of them has a superior claim.

When a hidden defect is discovered in one partner’s allotment, he has the choice between rescinding the division altogether or keeping his share with an ʿarsh (compensatory payment), for the emergence of a defect diminishes his portion, granting him the same options—ʿarsh or rescission—as are given to a purchaser. And Allah knows best.