And if alchemy were real and lawful, the due payable on it would be greater than a fifth and greater than zakat, for it would yield vast quantities of gold with little effort—less than is needed to extract minerals or recover buried treasure. Yet religious scholars regard it as fraudulent, false and forbidden: neither practising it nor treating its products as wealth is lawful, let alone requiring the dues payable on lawful wealth.

The man with whom I was discussing it said to me, “But Moses, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, practised alchemy.”

I replied, “That is a lie. No scholar among the Muslims or the People of the Book has reported this about Moses. Rather, reports transmitted from the People of the Book state that Moses was entitled to a due from them on which he lived. Had he practised alchemy, he would have supported himself from it.”

He said, “But Qārūn practised alchemy.”

I replied, “This too is false. No recognized scholar has said it. It is merely related by the likes of al-Tha‘labī in his Quran commentary, on the authority of someone he does not name. Al-Tha‘labī’s commentary contains both worthless and valuable material, for he collects reports indiscriminately. Had Qārūn’s wealth come from alchemy, he would not have been exceptional in this regard, since countless people have practised alchemy. Yet Allah, glorified be He, said:

‘We gave him such treasures that even their keys would have burdened a group of strong men.’

“He thus states that He gave him treasures whose very keys would have burdened a group of strong men. These treasures were either ones he had amassed himself, as Allah says:

‘And those who hoard gold and silver,’

and the rest of the verse;