come into existence is likewise invalid, because the analogy ignores decisive differences. One of them is that a guarantee (ḍamān) is a form of charity whose aim is pure benevolence, whereas insurance is a commercial exchange designed first and foremost for material gain. Should any good deed flow from it, that benefit is merely incidental and unintended; legal rulings, however, are shaped by what is primary, not by what is secondary and unintended.

(i) Analogising commercial insurance contracts to a guarantee against the dangers of the road is untenable, for it too is an analogy vitiated by material differences, as the preceding proof has shown.

(j) Equating commercial insurance with the retirement-pension system is likewise misconceived, for the cases differ in essential respects. Pension payments are a right assumed by the ruler in his capacity as guardian of the community. In distributing them he considers the employee’s service to the nation, has established regulations that safeguard the interests of the employee’s closest dependants, and takes account of their likely need. The pension scheme is therefore not a commercial exchange between the state and its employees; hence it bears no resemblance whatever to insurance, which is a profit-driven financial transaction by which companies exploit policy-holders and earn unlawful gain. What is paid at retirement is deemed a right undertaken by responsible governments toward those who have served the nation—an acknowledgment of their contribution and a form of cooperation in return for the labour of their bodies and minds, and for the great deal of time they devoted to advancing the community alongside the state.

(k) Likewise, comparing the system and contracts of commercial insurance to the system of the ʿāqilah is unsound, for the analogy again overlooks decisive differences. The liability assumed by the ʿāqilah is grounded in accidental or quasi-intentional harm, and in the bond of kinship that calls for mutual support, solidarity, cooperation, and the doing of good even without recompense. Commercial insurance contracts, by contrast, are exploitative, founded on purely financial exchanges that have nothing to do with