as an adjunct to the goods, and he therefore holds that the sale attaches only to the merchandise, not to the dirhams. When the dirham portion becomes substantial, however, it is plain that the bargain covers both the goods and the dirhams; the contract has then turned into a mixture of currency exchange and ordinary sale, two dealings that may not be combined. The basic rule I have already set out for you: in their view it is impermissible to join in a single transaction currency exchange with sale, or partnership with sale, or muḍāraba with sale, or marriage with sale, or musāqāh with sale.

Consider, then, a sword inlaid with silver, a Qur’an codex edged with silver, or a ring bearing a prominent stone. If, in Mālik’s estimation, the silver is merely subsidiary—that is, it represents one third or less of the item’s total value or price, while the blade, the codex itself, or the gemstone makes up two thirds or more—he permits the item, whether of gold or silver, to be sold for either gold or silver. But if the gold element comes to more than one third, or even a full third, of the total price, it is not permissible—when the ornament is silver—to sell it for gold in any circumstance; it may, however, be sold for silver provided the exchange is hand-to-hand. It may likewise be sold for any other goods, for cash or on credit.

If a piece of gold jewelry is set with gems and the gold content amounts to one third or less of its value or price, there is no objection to selling it immediately for gold or for silver. The same applies to silver jewelry set with gems or beads: so long as the silver is one third or less of its value, it may be sold forthwith, hand-to-hand, for gold or for silver, just as in the case of the sword. There is also no objection to selling any of these items for merchandise, foodstuffs, or any other goods, whether for prompt or deferred payment. And when gold, silver, and jewels are all present in a single ornament, and the gold amounts to no more than one third of the entire value, the sale is likewise unobjectionable.