And He does not forbid what He loves; He only forbids what He does not love. Thus they understood that what is prohibited is corrupt, not sound. Even if it contains some benefit, its harm outweighs that benefit. They knew that the purpose of Islamic law is to remove corruption and prevent it, not to bring it about and make it binding. If they were compelled to fulfil the obligations arising from unlawful contracts, they would be spreading corruption rather than setting things right. Allah does not set right the work of those who spread corruption.

His words:

“And when it is said to them, ‘Do not cause corruption on the earth’”

mean: do not act in disobedience to Allah Most High. Everyone who disobeys Allah spreads corruption, and prohibited acts constitute disobedience to Allah. The Lawgiver therefore prohibits them to prevent corruption and ward it off. There is not a single instance of something prohibited whose validity has been established by a scriptural text or scholarly consensus.

As for unlawful divorce and prayer in a usurped house, both are disputed, and there is no scriptural text establishing their validity that must be followed. Thus, anyone citing these two cases is left with no proof.

Some sales, however, are prohibited because they involve one party wronging the other, such as selling an animal made to appear more productive by leaving it unmilked, selling defective goods, intercepting goods before they reach the market, bidding up prices without intending to buy, and similar practices. Yet the Lawgiver has not made these sales binding like lawful sales. Rather, He has made them nonbinding, leaving the wronged party the choice: he may either annul them or approve them, for the right in this matter belongs to him. The Lawgiver did not prohibit them on account of a right belonging exclusively to Allah, as He prohibited acts of indecency. Rather, in these cases, if the wronged party knows the circumstances at the outset of the contract—for example, he knows of the defect, the deception, and the deliberate accumulation of milk in the udder, and knows the market price if he is arriving with goods—and consents to