upon Islam already, for dealings of every sort take place among them in countless worldly matters: sale and purchase, ijārah (leasing), muḍāraba (silent-partnership investment), muṣārafa (currency exchange), safekeeping, agency, and the like. They also engage in interest-based transactions in banks and elsewhere, in contracts between Muslim and non-Muslim companies, and in treaties concluded by Muslim and non-Muslim kings and heads of state. Yet although such dealings exist among all nations, most people are not Muslim; this alone shows the falsity of saying that “religion is simply dealings.”

Third, some transactions are lawful in Islam while others are not—interest-based dealings and other forbidden contracts, for example. If one insists that “religion is dealings,” he must accept that usurious transactions and prohibited contracts are part of the religion, and no rational person would say that.

Should the author protest that by “dealings” he really meant treating people with good character, we reply: conducting oneself toward others with fine manners is indeed most praiseworthy, and the Prophet ﷺ instructed it when he said to Abū Dharr, “Fear Allah wherever you are; follow up a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it; and deal with people with excellent character.”