paid by his opponent (1).

If he says, “If you hit the target you will have one dirham, but if you miss you must pay one dirham,” the agreement is invalid, for that is gambling.

Likewise, if he says, “If you memorize it, you will receive one hundred dirhams, and if you fail you owe one hundred,” it is not valid.

But if he says, “Shoot ten arrows, or answer these ten questions, and if your correct shots exceed the misses you will receive one dirham,” the contract is valid, because the reward is offered for a definite achievement—namely, scoring more than half of the ten—and that is not uncertain.

The same holds if he says, “If your correct shots are the majority, you will get one dirham for every hit”; that too is valid.

If he simply says, “You will have one dirham for each hit,” it is valid, and it is not a condition that his hits be more than, or even equal to, his misses (2).

If he says, “If you hit them all, you shall have one dirham for each hit,” the agreement is valid; but if he hits only nine of them, he is entitled to nothing (3).