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Another group maintained that the prize may be furnished by one of the two contestants, by both of them together, or by a third party, and that the judge will order its payment should the loser refuse to hand it over. If the money is supplied by either or both of the contestants, however, the arrangement is valid only when a muhallil enters the competition without contributing anything.

This is the position of Ahmad, Abu Ḥanīfah, al-Shāfiʿī, Isḥāq, al-Awzāʿī, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab, al-Zuhrī, and Ibn al-Mawwāz among the Mālikīs (1).

The muhallil takes part in order to make the prize permissible for the two contestants.

Accordingly, if he and one of them together outpace the other, the prize is divided between the two of them; if he alone outruns them both, he collects the two prizes; if they both outrun him, they take nothing from him; and if all three reach the finish together, each contestant retains the sum he staked while nothing is due to the muhallil.

The proofs for this view and the detailed discussion of them have already been set forth (2).

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A different group voiced much the same view, except that they said: the muhallil joins the race to make the prize permissible for himself, not for the other two.

This is one of the two reports from Mālik regarding the requirement of a muhallil,