or yellow. Tell me: if Allah withholds the fruit, on what grounds would you consider your brother’s money lawful for you?’”

Abū Masʿūd al-Dimashqī said:

“Mālik and al-Darāwardī included Anas’s words, ‘Tell me: if Allah withholds the fruit,’ in the Prophet’s statement, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, interpolating them into it. This is considered an error.”

Whether this explanation came from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or from Anas, it makes clear that this entails consuming wealth wrongfully: a person takes money under an exchange contract without guaranteeing anything in return.

If the harm in sales involving uncertainty is that they are liable to cause enmity, hatred, and the wrongful consumption of wealth, then it is evident that when an overriding benefit outweighs this harm, that benefit takes precedence. Thus, because horse racing, archery contests, and camel racing serve a benefit recognized by Islamic law, prizes are permissible in these competitions, even though they are not permissible in others.

Likewise, the amusement in which a man engages is vain if it serves no benefit. If, however, it does serve a benefit—as in the activities mentioned by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, when he said:

“All amusement in which a man engages is vain except shooting with his bow, training his horse, and playing with his wife, for these are worthwhile”—

then such amusement becomes worthwhile.

It is evident that prohibiting these transactions would cause people greater harm than the mutual hatred and wrongful consumption of wealth that might be feared from them, because the uncertainty involved in them