But if his lead is only four hits, they must shoot one more arrow. Should the lagging archer alone hit that shot, they are both required to shoot a second arrow; if the lagging archer (1) also lands that one, the first archer’s prior advantage is cancelled. However, if the lagging archer misses either of the two arrows, or if the leading archer lands either of them, the latter remains in the lead (2).
Section
Third Category: al-muḥāṭṭah (offset scoring)
This is an agreement that whatever hits the two archers share in common are to be cancelled until one of them gains a single additional hit (3); that shooter is declared the winner.
Although this resembles differential scoring (mufāḍalah), the distinction is that in mufāḍalah the specific margin required for victory must be named, whereas in muḥāṭṭah it need not be. If they simply agree (4) that their matching hits will be annulled and that whoever ends up with more hits than his opponent wins, no particular surplus has to be stipulated.
And if they declare, “Whoever scores five hits out of twenty is the winner,” then whenever he scores