stipulate that the rights of patronage should belong to someone other than the person who emancipates the slave. He said:

‘What is the matter with people who stipulate conditions that are not in Allah’s Book? Whoever stipulates a condition that is not in Allah’s Book, that condition is invalid, even if there are a hundred such conditions. Allah’s Book has greater right to be followed, and Allah’s condition is more binding.’”

This noble, widely transmitted hadith, which the scholars have unanimously accepted, is agreed by them to apply generally to conditions in all contracts. None of them confines it to conditions in sales. Rather, if anyone stipulates conditions in an endowment, emancipation, gift, sale, marriage, lease, vow, or any other transaction that contradict what Allah has prescribed for His servants—such that those conditions require what Allah has forbidden, prohibit what He has commanded, permit what He has prohibited, or prohibit what He has permitted—then those conditions are invalid, by the consensus of the Muslims, in all contracts, whether endowments or otherwise.

Abū Dāwūd and other compilers of the Sunan collections narrated that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Settlement is permissible between Muslims, except for a settlement that permits what is forbidden or forbids what is permissible. Muslims are bound by their conditions, except for a condition that permits what is forbidden or forbids what is permissible.”

The hadith of ‘Ā’ishah is an instance of a general statement made on a particular occasion. Although most scholars hold that, in such cases, the general wording is to be applied rather than confining its application to the occasion that prompted it, there is no disagreement among them that most general statements made on particular occasions are not restricted to those occasions. This is the case with verses revealed on a specific occasion, such as the verses concerning inheritance, jihad, and zihār,