(1) The prohibition of the sales known as *muhaqala* and *muzabana* is transmitted in the hadiths of Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, Ibn ʿAbbas, Anas, and Jabir b. ʿAbd Allah (may Allah be pleased with them all). Al-Bukhari records these narrations in the following order: 2186, 2187, 2207, 2381. Muslim cites the reports of Jabir, Abu Saʿid, and Ibn ʿAbbas in this order: 1536, 1546, 1550, and he also relates it from Abu Hurayra (1545). Al-Sanʿani writes in Subul al-Salam, 2/24: “Al-muhaqala, as explained by Jabir—the transmitter of the hadith—is one man’s sale of standing crops to another for one hundred *farq* of wheat. Abu ʿUbayd defines it as selling grain while it is still in the ear. Malik interprets it as leasing land for a share of its yield, which corresponds to *mukhabara* (sharecropping). This last view is unlikely, because in this narration muhaqala is mentioned alongside mukhabara, and because a Companion is best qualified to clarify what he narrates; Jabir’s explanation, cited by al-Shafiʿi, therefore carries greater weight. The second term, *muzabana*, derives from *zabn*—with an open zay and a silent baʾ—meaning a vigorous shove, as though each party in the contract is pushing the other from his right. Ibn ʿUmar, in the version transmitted by Malik, defined it as selling fresh dates still on the palm for an equal measure of dried dates, or selling grapes for an equal measure of raisins; al-Shafiʿi records this in al-Umm. The definitions of muhaqala and muzabana found in the hadiths may have been explicitly stated by the Prophet, peace be upon him, or supplied by the narrators themselves. The rationale for the prohibition is the danger of *riba* (usury), because the equality of the exchanged quantities is unknown.”