which he regards as general in scope. This is the strongest of these views. Thus, this verse—by which I mean His saying, “Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury” [al-Baqarah: 275]—can be cited as evidence for the permissibility of advance-payment sales of animals and merchandise only according to those scholars who hold that its wording is general and must encompass every sale except those excluded by evidence.

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Allah, exalted be He, has excluded from this general permission trading at the time of Friday prayer, through the clear text of His Book:

“O you who believe, when the call is made for prayer on Friday, hasten to the remembrance of Allah and leave off trade.” [al-Jumu‘ah: 9]

Through His Prophet, He has also excluded many kinds of sales. These include the Prophet’s ﷺ prohibition of sales involving undue uncertainty; sales concluded by touch or by tossing an item; habal habala sales (transactions tied to future animal offspring); two sales in one; pebble-based sales; earnest-money sales; a townsman selling on behalf of a Bedouin; a man making a competing sale over his brother’s sale; and other similar prohibitions.

The Prophet ﷺ did not, however, prohibit advance-payment sales. They therefore remain subject to the original permission established by the Quran’s general wording, since they constitute a form of sale, as we have already explained—except for those forms likewise excluded by analogical reasoning, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus, as we shall explain, Allah willing.