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Those who say that lending is contrary to legal analogy argue that it is the sale of a commodity subject to the rules governing usury for another of the same kind, without taking possession. This is mistaken. Lending belongs to the category of gratuitously granting the use of property, like lending an item for use. This is why the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) called it a grant for use, saying:

“Or a grant of gold for use, or a grant of silver for use.”

The basic principle of lending an item for use is to give someone the underlying asset so that he may benefit from what it continually provides, and then return it to its owner. Sometimes he benefits from its use, as when real estate is lent. Sometimes someone grants him livestock so that he may drink their milk and then return them. Sometimes he lends him a tree so that he may eat its fruit and then return it. Milk and fruit are continually replenished, much like the benefits derived from using an asset. This is why, in endowments, they are treated in the same way as those benefits.

Likewise, a lender advances property to someone so that he may benefit from it and then return its equivalent, for returning an equivalent takes the place of returning the very same asset. This is why the lender is forbidden to stipulate anything beyond its equivalent, just as he would be forbidden, when lending an item for use, to stipulate that something else be returned along with the original asset.

This does not belong to the category of sale. No rational person would sell a dirham for another identical to it in every respect, with payment deferred. An item is sold for another of the same kind with deferred payment only when they differ in quality or quantity, as when one kind of coin is sold for another, or intact coins for broken ones, and the like.