the intended object of the contract, or part of it. The stratagem is therefore nothing but a form of trifling [and corruption], for the true object of the contract is otherwise evident.

Those who do not resort to such stratagems—or who do so even though the invalidity of this stratagem has become clear to them—[are] faced with two choices: either they proceed out of need while believing that they are committing a prohibited act, as we have observed most people do; or they refrain from doing so and abstain from consuming the fruits included in this transaction, thereby suffering harm [and dire need] whose extent is known only to Allah. Even if one or two individuals could commit themselves to this, the Muslims as a whole could not do so without causing a waste of wealth of a kind that no revealed law has ever prescribed—let alone a revealed law of which Allah says, “He has laid no hardship upon you in religion” [al-Hajj: 78] [al-Hajj: 78]; and He Most High says, “Allah intends ease for you, not hardship” [al-Baqara: 185] [al-Baqara: 185]; and He Most High says, “Allah intends to lighten your burdens” [al-Nisā: 28] [al-Nisā: 28]. The two Sahih collections contain the statements: “You were sent only to make things easy,” “Make things easy and do not make them difficult,” and “So that the Jews may know that there is latitude in our religion.” Thus, prohibiting anything indispensable to sustaining people’s livelihoods would impose hardship, and such hardship is precluded by the Sharia.

The point is that the Muslim community could never abide by the prohibition of anything of this kind, because it would entail intolerable ruin. It is therefore known that it is not prohibited—