whose delight is now complete—whether by feeling safe or by emerging victorious—while the two parties who actually put up the stakes stand entirely apart from such advantage.

• They said further: With the muhallil’s entrance, the contract has not ceased to be one in which the prize is furnished by two people; the prize is still theirs as it always was. What his participation yields is simply an additional possible destination(1) for that prize. Thus the risk is that, on one contingency, it may be paid to this competitor alone, on another to that competitor alone,(2) and on a third each of them would take back the amount he contributed. By his inclusion we have merely gained three further scenarios: that both stakes go to him alone, or to him together with this one,(3) or to him together with the other. All we have obtained from his entry, then, is a multiplication of the directions in which the prize might be disbursed—nothing more. As you can see,(4) the contract remains one in which both original contestants have wagered.

• They also observed that those who make the muhallil a condition differ: did he come in so that the prize becomes lawful only for himself, or for himself and the two contributors? There are two opinions:
– The majority who require him hold that he enters so that the prize becomes lawful for himself and for them both.
– Abū ʿAlī ibn Khayrān of the Shāfiʿī school(5) said, “He makes it lawful for himself alone.”(6)