Section: The Second Principle Concerning Contracts—What Is Lawful and What Is Unlawful

The foundation of this is that Allah has forbidden in His Book our consuming one another’s wealth wrongfully. He condemned the rabbis and monks who wrongfully consume people’s wealth, and condemned the Jews for taking interest despite having been forbidden to do so, and for wrongfully consuming people’s wealth. This encompasses everything wrongfully consumed through exchanges and gratuitous transfers, as well as whatever is taken without the consent of the person entitled to it and without a rightful claim.

Wrongfully consuming wealth through an exchange takes two forms mentioned by Allah in His Book: interest and gambling. He mentioned the prohibition of interest, which is the opposite of charity, at the end of Sūrat al-Baqarah, and in Sūrat Āl ʿImrān, al-Rūm and al-Muddaththir. He condemned the Jews for it in Sūrat al-Nisāʾ, and mentioned the prohibition of gambling in Sūrat al-Māʾidah.

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, then explained in detail what Allah had stated comprehensively in His Book. He prohibited sales involving uncertainty, as Muslim and others narrated from Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him.

Such uncertainty means that the outcome is unknown. Selling something whose outcome is unknown is a form of gambling, or wagering.

To illustrate: if a slave runs away