or balance weights of unknown weight, for this entails uncertainty, as we explained regarding two heaps belonging to a single category in which unequal exchange is impermissible, such as wheat and barley.

In a court-ordered partition, however, each heap must be divided separately.

When each heap is divided separately, it may be divided using a measure of unknown capacity just as it may using a measure of known capacity, because dividing a single heap by volume merely separates out each party’s entitlement; it is not a sale. Likewise, if there are two categories, they may be divided into equal or unequal quantities by volume or weight. This, however, is permissible only with a measure of known capacity and balance weights of known weight. In a court-ordered partition, each category must be divided separately. When each category is divided separately, measures of either known or unknown capacity may be used, as explained above. Success comes from Allah Most High.

Section

Drawing lots is not permissible when dividing anything measured by volume or weight.

Section

Animals and merchandise may, by unanimous agreement, be divided by mutual consent without drawing lots. There is no disagreement among the scholars concerning this.

As for dividing them by balancing the shares and drawing lots, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salama al-Mājishūn prohibited this, as recorded in Yahyā’s transmission in the Book of Partition. He said that they should instead be sold and the proceeds divided. Mālik and his companions permitted it within a single category but prohibited it between two categories.

Section

Mālik’s companions differed over how to distinguish a single category from two categories in this context—may Allah have mercy on him. Ashhab treated partition in the same way as sale and applied its rules to it. He said: “Goods that may be exchanged for one another in a forward sale may not be combined in a partition by lot.” Ibn al-Qāsim, however, did not