the lawful predominates in people’s wealth and is more abundant than the unlawful. This claim is sometimes made by certain Sufis who study jurisprudence. I know senior shaykhs in Iraq who have made it, and perhaps it passed from them to some of the shaykhs of Egypt. The person who said this did not mean to rule out eating altogether. Rather, he said, “Religious scrupulousness is then unattainable.” He then discussed how one should proceed regarding what one does and refrains from doing; I cannot recall his remarks at present.

Let the discerning person reflect and understand that whoever departs from the prophetic law of Muhammad, established by the Quran and Sunnah and unanimously accepted by the early generations of this community and its imams, will need to devise another, self-contradictory code that both reason and religion reject. Yet whoever exercises independent judgment and is tested in obeying Allah and His Messenger, Allah rewards him for his effort and forgives his error:

“Our Lord, forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith, and place no resentment in our hearts toward those who believe. Our Lord, You are indeed Most Kind, Most Merciful.”

As for his claim that doubt arose because the spoils from the battle of al-Mansūrah were not distributed and became mixed with other wealth, the answer consists of two points.

The first is to say: the wholly unlawful wealth mixed with people’s possessions—such as property forcibly seized by those with power, whether rulers, highway robbers, or participants in civil strife, together with wealth obtained through the dishonest dealings that fall under this heading—far exceeds those spoils;