will Allah accept from him any obligatory or voluntary deed.” Allah also abolished the pre-Islamic practices of a man taking another man’s son as his own and of an emancipated slave ascribing his clientage to someone other than his emancipator. Such acts are impermissible regardless of any stipulation, and a stipulation cannot render permissible what was forbidden. By contrast, a stipulation makes obligatory what was permissible without it, such as an increase in the dowry or price, the provision of collateral, or delaying collection. A man may give additional wealth to a woman, voluntarily furnish collateral, grant an extension, and do similar things. If any of these is stipulated, it becomes obligatory. Once it becomes obligatory, a demand that had been lawful without it becomes forbidden, for demanding payment was not lawful simply because there was no stipulation. The Lawgiver did not permit demanding payment from a debtor without qualification. Thus, a condition does not alter what is lawful or forbidden without qualification.

As for what Allah has permitted only in a particular situation, and not without qualification, if a condition moves it beyond that situation, the condition cannot be said to have forbidden what Allah made lawful. Likewise, when Allah has forbidden something only in a particular situation, and not without qualification, the condition cannot be said to have permitted what Allah forbade. This is so even though, in the absence of a condition, the ruling of permissibility or prohibition would be presumed to continue. There is, however, a difference between permissibility and prohibition being established by an explicit revealed pronouncement and their being established solely through the presumption of continuity.

A contract or condition therefore overrides what the presumption of continuity entails, but it does not override what the Lawgiver’s pronouncement has established. The reports from the Companions accord with this, as Umar—may Allah be pleased with him—said: “Rights are [decisively settled] by stipulated conditions.”