that His servants can create as He does. Rather, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said, as His Messenger related from Him:

“Who does greater wrong than one who sets out to create as I create? Let them create a tiny ant; let them create a mosquito.”

Thus, manufactured things, such as cooked foods, clothing and dwellings, are created only through human agency. Allah Most High says:

“And a sign for them is that We carried their descendants in the laden ship, and We created for them others like it on which they ride.”

And He says:

“Do you worship what you carve, when Allah created you and what you make?”

Natural creations—minerals, plants and animals—are beyond human beings’ ability to manufacture. They merely produce imitations for fraudulent purposes. This is the true nature of alchemy: it consists of imitations. This is an extensive subject on which experts have written works that cannot be discussed here.

Practices to be condemned also include contracts forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, such as contracts involving usury and gambling; sales involving uncertainty; habal al-habala sales; sales concluded by touching or tossing the goods; and usury involving deferment or unequal exchange. Likewise, they include artificial bidding—when someone raises the price of goods without intending to buy them—leaving a dairy animal unmilked to exaggerate its apparent milk yield, and all other forms of deceptive concealment.

The same applies to usurious transactions, whether between two parties or three, when their overall purpose is to exchange a sum of dirhams for a greater sum payable at a later date.

Two-party transactions are those conducted between two people, such as combining a loan with a sale, a lease, an orchard-tending partnership or a crop-sharing agreement. It is authentically established that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,