This position, supported by the foundational principles of Mālik and Ahmad, as well as by some of the principles of other scholars, is the soundest position. It is also borne out by most of the transactions conducted by the early generations, and people’s livelihoods cannot function properly without it. Anyone who goes too far in prohibiting what he considers to involve undue uncertainty will inevitably be compelled to permit [what he has prohibited]. He must either depart from the school he follows in this matter or resort to a legal stratagem. We have personally observed people and heard reports about them, yet we have never seen anyone consistently adhere to his school’s position on prohibiting these matters; nor is anyone able to do so. We know with certainty that the harm underlying the prohibition is not removed by the stratagems they propose. It is inconceivable that the Lawgiver would prohibit something we need and then permit it only through a pointless stratagem that is merely a form of play.

I have carefully considered most of what has driven people to resort to legal stratagems and found it attributable to one of two things. The first is sins for which they were punished by having their affairs made difficult. They could find no way out of this hardship except through stratagems, but those stratagems only compounded their affliction. This is what befell the Sabbath-breakers among the Jews, and Allah Most High said: “Because of wrongdoing by the Jews, We forbade them good things that had formerly been lawful to them” [al-Nisā: 160] [al-Nisā: 160]. This is a sin of conduct.

The second is excessive rigor arising from their belief that the Lawgiver had prohibited something. This belief then compelled them to regard it as lawful through stratagems. This results from an error in independent reasoning. For whoever fears Allah, takes what He has made lawful for him, and fulfills what He has made obligatory upon him will never be driven by Allah to resort to innovated legal stratagems. Allah—glorified is He—has placed no hardship upon us in religion; rather, He sent our Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—with the easy, pure monotheistic faith.

The first cause, then, is wrongdoing.

The second cause is lack of knowledge. Wrongdoing and ignorance are the two qualities ascribed to man in the words of Allah Most High: “Yet man undertook it; indeed, he was unjust and ignorant” [al-Ahzāb: 72] [al-Ahzāb: 72].