Most of them, however, hold that the correct rationale is that this provides a means of engaging in riba: someone might sell one thousand dirhams in a bag for two thousand dirhams, treating the additional thousand as payment for the bag—as is permitted by those followers of Abū Hanīfa who allow such a transaction. The correct view is that this is impermissible, because the intention is to exchange unequal amounts of dirhams. Whenever that is the intention, pursuing it by any means is forbidden, for actions are judged only by intentions.

The same applies when the quantity of the commodity subject to the rules of riba is unknown and is merely estimated, as in the following report:

“The necklace sold on the day of Hunayn contained beads strung on gold. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘It must not be sold until you separate its components.’”

When that necklace was taken apart, the gold accompanying the beads proved to exceed the separate gold offered in exchange. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, therefore prohibited exchanging one for the other until its components had been separated. This was because the separate gold might be less than the gold accompanying the beads, in which case gold would have been exchanged for an equal amount of gold together with additional beads. This is impermissible. And if the taking is known.

If, however, the intention is to exchange dirhams for others of the same kind, and the pure silver exceeds the silver contained in the alloyed coins—as when pure dirhams are exchanged for debased ones—so that the additional silver pays for the alloying metal, then none of the harm inherent in riba is present. The intention is not to exchange dirhams for a greater amount of dirhams, nor is it a transaction in which there could