The Significance of Prohibition of Gharar Towards The Formulation of Esentials of Contract (Arkan) In Islamic Mu‘Amalat : An Analysis From the Quran and Hadith

1. In Coppage v. Kansas 236 US 1, 17 (1915), Judge Pitney noted that: "It is impossible to uphold the freedom of contract and the right of private property without at that same time recognising as legitimate those inequalities of fortune that are the necessary result of the exercise of those right". Quoted in K.Zweigert and H.Kötz, An Introduction to Comparative Law, 2nd.ed., Oxford, 1987, p.355.

2. Ibid., p.354.

3. Professor Atiyah for example remarks: "During the past hundred years there has been a continous weakening of belief in the values involved in individual freedom of choice, and this weakening has been refelected in the law. The legislation of the past century has carried to great lenghts the circumstances in which the individual freedom of decision is overriden, either in the direct interest of the majority, or to give effect to values which a majority believe to be of overriding imporance". Atiyah, The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract, Oxford, 1979, p.726.

4. Professor Ballantyne while commenting on the principle of autonomie de la volonté of the Arab Civil Codes writes: "Thus, in the jurisdiction under consideration, it may be said that, in contract, the basic principle is that of autonomie de la volonté - freedom of the will - freedom to contract... However, this is legalistic and impossible in practice... The real object under the Codes is to achieve contractual justice, and the judge has... a considerable discretion in order to arrive at it. W.M. Ballantyne, Commercial Law in the Arab Middle East:The Gulf States, London, 1986, p.89.

5. See for example N.J. Coulson, Commercial Law in the Gulf States: The Islamic Legal Tradition, London, 1984, p.19ff.

6 Nabil Saleh, Unlawful Gain and Legitimate Profit in Islamic Law, 2nd ed., London, 1992, p.62.

7. Mustafa Zarqa', Nizam al-Ta’min, Beirut, 1984, pp.33-4.

8. See Badran Abu ‘Aynayn Badran, al-Syari‘ah al-Islamiyyah Tarikhuha wa Nazariyyah al-Milkiyyah wa al-‘Uqud, Alexandria, n.d., pp.505-8.

9. Professor ‘Abd Razzaq al-Sanhuri viewed that these three rules should be reviewed in order to make Islamic law acceptible to the modern change trade and business as he wrote: "You will observe that of these three matters had a profound effect on detailed provisions to the extent that, in many such, the Islamic jurisprudence distanced itself from the requirements of the trasaction. If it were possible to clarify our understanding of these three matters in accordance with the development of civilisation, then much of the reasoning which stops the Islamic jurisprudence from going along with requirements of such development would dissapear. Sanhuri, Masadir al-Haqq fi al-Fiqh al-Islami, Cairo, 1967, vol.iii, p.14 (quoted in W.M. Ballantyne, "The Shari‘a: A Speech to the IBA Conference in Cairo", A.L.Q., 2:1, February 1987, p.20).

11 For example M. Khan, Usury and Mohammadan Law, Ph.D. (Oxon), 1942, A. Kharrufah, al-Riba wa al-Fa’idah, Baghdad, 1962, I.Z. Badawi, Nazariyyat al-Riba al-Muharram, Cairo, 1964, Anwar Iqbal Qureshi, Islam and the Theory of Interest, Lahore, 1974 and A.G. Muslim, Theory of Interest in Islamic Law, Ph.D. (Glasgow) 1974.

12 See for example Afghani, Kashf al-Haqa`iq Sharh Kanz al-Daqa'iq, Egypt, 1318H., vol.ii, pp.21-2. For modern views see Shaykh Ahmad Ibrahim, "al-‘Uqud wa al-Shurut wa al-Khiyarat", Majallat al-Qanun wa al-Iqtisad, 6:4 (1934), Muhammad Yusuf Musa, "The Liberty of the Individual in Contracts and Conditions According to Muslim Law", I.Q., 2 (1955) pp.79-85 and pp.252-63, M.E. Hamid, "The Freedom to Make Stipulations in the Islamic Law of Contract", J.I.C.L., 7 (1977), pp.22-32 and Nabil Saleh, "Financial Transactions and the Islamic Theory of Obligations and Contracts", in C. Mallat (ed.), Islamic Law and Finance, London, 1988, pp.23-4.

13. The word usury means interest in excess of a maximum established by laws applicable to various types of loan transactions. In popular speech the term is frequently applied to any rate of interest considered to be unfair and unjust. Harold S. Sloan and Arnold J. Zurcher, Dictionary of Economics, 5th.ed., New York, 1970, p.457. Lane also equated the word rib_ with usury. See E.Lane, The Arabic-English Lexicon, Cambridge, 1984 (reproduction in compact volumes of 1877 edition), vol.i, p.1023.

14 For example Muhammad Rashid Rida, al-Riba wa al-Mu‘amalat fi al-Islam, Cairo, 1960, ‘Abd Razzaq al-Sanhuri, Masadir al-Haqq, vol.iii, in particular pages 223ff. and 241ff, Fazlur Rahman, "Riba and Interest", I.S., 3 (1964), pp.1-43 and Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, Mu‘amalat al-Bunuk wa Ahkamuha al-Syar`iyyah, Cairo, 1993.

15 See for example Muhammad Ab_ Zahra, Buhuth fi al-Riba, Cairo, 1970, Abu al-A‘la al-Mawdudi, al-Riba, Damascus, 1958, The Fatwa of Shaykh al-Azhar, volume 64, no. 7, 1992, pp.43-9 and Ahmad Fahmi Abu Sinah, "al-Halal wa al-Haram fi al-Bunuk wa al-Mal", Majallat al-Azhar, vol.64, no.1 (1991), pp.39-43.

16 I.Z.Badawi, Nazariyyah al-Riba al-Muharram, Cairo, 1964.

17 Ali Khafif, Ahkam al-Mu‘amalat al-Syar‘iyyah, Cairo, 1941, pp.232-3.

18. Sahih al-Bukhari, Egypt, 1981, vol.iii, p.29.

19. Ibn Hazm, al-Muhalla, Beirut, 1969, vol.viii, p.412.

20. Ghazali, al-Wajiz fi Fiqh al-Shafi‘i, Egypt, 1317H., vol.i, p.138.

21. Ibn Taymiyya, Majmu‘ al-Fatawa, Riyad, 1383H., vol.xxix, pp.132 and 346.

22. Ibid., p.347.

23. Afghani, Kashf al-Haqa'iq, Egypt, 1318H., vol.ii, pp.21-2.

24. See Zayla‘i, Nasb al-Raya, India (Surat), 1938, vol.iv, pp.18-9 and Sarakhsi, Kitab al-Mabsut, Cairo, 1906-13, vol.xiii, p.13.

25. Ibn Rushd, Bidayat al-Mujtahid wa Nihayat al-Muqtasid, Beirut, 1988, vol.ii, p.159.

26 See Coulson, Commercial Law in the Gulf States, p.99-102.

27 Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-‘Arab, Egypt, 1300H., vol.vi, p.314. For details of other grammatical usages see ibid., pp.314-26 and Faruzabadi, Qamus al-Muhit, Egypt, 1301H., vol.ii, pp.99-100.

28 Jawhari, al-Sihah: Taj al-Lughah wa S ihah al-‘Arabiyyah, Egypt, 1956, vol.ii, p.768.

29 Ibid.

30 J.A.Haywood and H.M.Nahmad, A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language, London, Reprinted 1984, (first edition 1962) p.178.

31 Jawhari, al-Sihah, p.767; Muqri, al-Misbah al-Munir, Beirut, 1978, vol.ii, p.532; Raghib Isfihani, Mu‘jam, p.371; and E.W.Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, vol.ii, p.2239.

32 See Jawhari, al-Sihah, vol.ii, p.767; Ibn Manzur, Lisan, vol.vi, p.314; and Muqri, al-Misbah, vol.ii, p.768.

33 Ibn Manzur, Lisan, vol.vi, p.317.

34 Ibid.

35. Faruzabadi, Qamus, vol.ii, p.99. See also Ibn Manz_r, Lisan, vol.vi, p.314, and Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Mu‘jam Alfaz al-Qur'an al-Karim, 2nd.ed., 1970, vol.ii, p.270.

36. Nawawi considered gharar as the most important principle in Islamic law. See Nawawi, Sharh Matn Muslim, Beirut, 1987, vol.ix, p.411. Ibn ‘Arabi maintained that the prohibition of gharar as one of the pillars in Islamic law of contracts. See Ibn ‘Arabi, Ahkam al-Qur'an, (ed. by ‘Ali Muhammad al-Bajawi), Beirut, n.d., vol.i, p.96.

37 Qurtubi, al-Jami‘ li al-Ahkam al-Qur'an, Cairo, 1936, p.52 and G.Sale, The Koran and Preliminary Discourse, London, 1923, vol.i, pp.133-4.

38 Malik bin Anas, al-Muwatta’, Egypt, n.d., p.306.

39 F. Rosenthal, Gambling in Islam, Leiden, 1975, p.139.

40 For details see Zamakhshari, Tafsir al-Kashshaf, Egypt, 1343H., vol.i, p.102 and for the summary of all classical acounts on the practice of maysir see ‘Abd al-Salam Muhammad Harun, al-Maysir wa al-Azlam, Cairo, 1953.

135 See Jassas, Kitab Ahkam al-Qur'an, Matba‘ah al-Awqaf al-Islamiyyah, 1335H., vol.i, p.329.

41. Nawawi, Minhaj al-Talibin, translated by E.C.Howard from French, London, 1914, p.483.

42. Tabari, Jami‘ al-Bayan ‘An Ta’wil Ay al-Qur’an, Egypt, c.1954-6, vol.iv, p.323.

43. Rosenthal, Gambling, p.78.

44 Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur’an al-‘Azim, Beirut, 1966, vol.ii, p.634.

45 Qurtubi, al-Jami‘, vol.iii, p.348.

46 Tabari, Jami‘, vol.viii, p.217 and Jassas, Ahkam, vol.ii, p.172.

47. Reported from Abu Hurayrah by Muslim, see Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani, Bulugh al-Maram min Adillat al-Ahkam, Singapore: 1378H., p.169.

48 Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, Egypt, 1348H., vol.iv, p.284 and Qastallani, Irshad al-Sari, Cairo, 1326H., vol.v, p.104.

49 Ibid.

50 ‘Asqalani, Fath al-Bari, vol.iv, p.284.

51. Ibid, p.284. For the hadith see Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Musnad, Egypt, 1949, vol.iv, p.249.

52. Baghawi, Sharh al-Sunnah, Damascus, 1974, vol.viii, p.131.

53. Shawkani, Nayl al-Awtar, Egypt, 1357H., vol.v, p.148.

54. Baghawi, Sharh al-Sunna, vol.viii, p.131.

55 oost of these hadiths can be found in ‘Asqalani, Bulugh al-Maram, pp.168-171. For the complete list of these prohibited contracts see Ibn ‘Arabi, Ahkam, vol.i, pp.243-4. For explanation of these contracts see my Studies in the Islamic Law of Contracts: The Prohibition of Gharar, Kuala Lumpur: ILBS, 2000, pp.44-46 and 54-60.

56 For example in the Hanafi school see Ibn Nujaym, al-Bahr al-Ra'iq, Egypt, 1310H., vol.v, pp.278ff; in the Maliki school see Salih ‘Abd al-Sami‘ Abi, Jawahir al-Iklil, Cairo, 1947, vol.ii, pp.1ff; in the Shafi`i school see Shirbini al-Khatib, al-Iqna‘, Egypt, 1950, vol.ii, pp.2-6; in the Hanbali school see Mar‘i ibn Yusuf, Ghaya al-Muntaha: al-Jami‘ Bayna al-Iqna‘ wa al-Muntaha, Damascus, 1378H., vol.ii, p.10; and in the Shi‘i school see Ja‘far ibn al-Hasan al-Hilli, Shara'i‘ al-Islam fi Fiqh al-Islami al-Ja‘fari, ed.by Muhammad Jawad al-Mughniyyah, Beirut, n.d., vol.i, pp.166-7.

57 Taqi al-Din al-Husayni, Kifayat al-Akhyar, Singapore, 1940, vol.1, p.159.

58 Ibid.

59 Ibn Rushd, Bidayat, vol.ii, pp.154-55. Sanhuri called this prohibited gharar as gharar mu'aththar and the permitted gharar as gharar ghayr mu'aththar. Sanhuri, Masadir al-Haqq, vol.iii, p.49.

60 Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, al-I‘tisam, Egypt, 1913, vol.ii, p.328.

61 Ibn Rushd, Bidayat, vol.ii, pp.155-6.