• Among the Lawgiver’s equitable rulings is his nullification of transactions that are oppressive and unjust—any sale or contract tainted by gharar (undue uncertainty), injustice, or an unlawful bias that privileges one party over the other.

• Among his comprehensive rulings is the requirement of mutual consent between the two parties in contracts of exchange as well as in contracts of donation; the wealth of a Muslim or a treaty-bound non-Muslim may never be taken except with his willing approval.

• Another overarching ruling is the prohibition of causing harm or reciprocating harm without right in every form of transaction, partnership, neighbourhood, or interaction.

• Among his universal rulings is that laborers must complete their work without deficiency, and those for whom the work is done must pay their wages in full.

• Likewise, it is obligatory to honor the contracts and stipulations that one contracting party places upon the other in every kind of agreement whenever they bring benefit to both or to either of them—except for any stipulation that makes the unlawful lawful or the lawful unlawful. Such a condition is void, for the Lawgiver has declared: “Whoever introduces into this affair of ours something that is not part of it, it is rejected.” (1)

• Another comprehensive ruling is that objectives and intentions are taken into account in matters of transactions and worldly dealings just as they are in acts of worship. By virtue of this principle, every stratagem devised to commit a forbidden act or to annul a Muslim’s right and the like has been rendered invalid.

• Finally, all binding and non-binding contracts—whether contracts of exchange, contracts of donation, or acts of annulment—are concluded through whatever words are customary between the two parties or through actions that indicate the same.