—nor according to Mālik.

Al-Shāfiʿī rules that the hire of a benefit is only lawful when that benefit possesses an independent, assessable value. Consequently, one may not rent an apple merely to smell it, nor food simply to decorate a shopfront, because such benefits have no market value in and of themselves. Therefore it is impermissible according to both Mālik and al-Shāfiʿī.

A similar disagreement arises over leasing silver dirhams or gold dinars.

In brief: whenever the item leased is not identified by its very substance, Ibn al-Qāsim maintains that the contract is invalid and amounts to a loan. Abū Bakr al-Abharī and others, however, hold that it is valid and that the wage becomes binding. Those who forbid it do so because they cannot envisage any benefit in such a case except through consuming—or destroying—the very substance hired. Those who allow it can conceive of a benefit, such as ornamentation, the appearance of wealth, or any similar purpose imaginable in this sphere. These, then, are the well-known points of dispute that turn on the nature of the benefit.

As for the disputes that turn on the nature of the price, they concern what may lawfully serve as payment in sales and what may not.

Among the matters explicitly prohibited in this category is the report that

“The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade the stud fee of the male animal, the earnings of the cupper, and the miller’s measure.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī explains: “The Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—prohibition of the miller’s measure refers to a pre-Islamic practice in which people would hand their wheat to the miller on condition that he receive a portion of the flour produced.”

He and his school say: “This, in our view, is impermissible, for it is a hire paid by the customer with property that he does not yet possess, and that property is not a debt already owed. Al-Shāfiʿī concurs with this.”

Al-Shāfiʿī’s followers add: “If one were to hire the butcher for the hide, or the miller for the bran—or for a sāʿ of flour—the contract would be invalid because of the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—prohibition of the miller’s measure.” According to Mālik, however, it is permissible, for the man has hired him in return for a known portion of the food, and the miller’s wage is precisely that specified portion, which is likewise known.

As for the earnings of the cupper, some scholars held them to be forbidden outright. Others disagreed, saying that they are merely base and therefore disliked, while still others declared them lawful.

The root of their disagreement is the clash of transmitted reports on the subject. Those who consider the earnings unlawful cite the narration from Abū Hurayrah in which the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said,

“Among illicit gains is the earning of the cupper.”

They also invoke the report from Anas ibn Mālik:

“The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—declared the cupper’s earnings unlawful.”

Likewise the narration from ʿAwn ibn Abī Juḥayfah, who said:

“My father purchased a cupper and broke his cupping instruments. I asked him, ‘Father, why did you break them?’ He replied, ‘The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade the price of blood.’”