This, then, is a point to which no reply can be given.

They went on to say: Moreover, when both contestants put up the stake together, each of them enjoys exactly what the other enjoys, bears exactly what the other bears, and his hope and fear mirror the other’s hope and fear. That is nothing but pure equity. In that case the two would resemble partners in an ʿinān partnership (1), or in musāqāh (2), muzāraʿah (3), or muḍārabah (4). For this very reason the Lawgiver forbade one partner to single himself out from the other by claiming the produce of a specific plot (5) or the fruit of a particular tree, and the working partner in a muḍārabah is not permitted to reserve for himself the profit of one specific commodity; rather, the two must share equally in both gain and loss.

The only ground on which you allow the stake to come from one of them alone is that, in your view, it falls under the heading of jiʿālah (a reward contract).

In this type of jiʿālah the performance of the work is the very objective; accordingly, it may be said: if they were both to contribute