The Summary of ^Abdullah al-Harariyy
Ensuring the Personal Obligatory Knowledge of the Religion

Marriage and Dealing Contracts

Chapter 1 Knowledge Before Action

Allah commanded us with things, and we must comply with what He commanded. Every accountable Muslim has the obligation not to engage in anything until he knows what Allah ordained as lawful or unlawful about it. Allah made the selling (bay^) lawful and the usurious gain (riba) unlawful. The Islamic law (Shar^) defined the selling with the definite article to indicate the lawfulness of only the selling which satisfied the integrals and conditions and not any selling per se. One must learn the aforementioned if one wants to sell or buy or else one will consume the usurious gain (riba), whether or not one wanted to do so.

The Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, said: <<The truthful tradesperson shall be assembled on the Resurrection Day with the prophets, the highly-ranked righteous Muslims (siddiqun), and the martyrs.>> This is because of what this person faces when struggling with himself and his desires, in subduing his self to conduct contracts according to the Islamic law. The threat of Allah to punish those who violate His Laws is known.

Among the remaining contracts are: the renting of things and hiring people's services (ijarah), trading with another person's money for profit sharing (qirad), putting up collateral (rahn), commissioning another to do something (wakalah), deposits for safekeeping (wadi^ah), lending something for use (^ariyyah), partnership (sharikah), and tending (watering, weeding, etc.) grapes or dates for part of the crop (musaqah). One must also observe their conditions and integrals.

Chapter 2 Marriage Contract

One must be exceptionally cautious in verifying the conditions and integrals of the marriage contract for fear of what will result if any of these were not satisfied. The Honorable Qur'an referred to this by the saying of Allah in Surat Tahrim, Ayah 6:

which means: [O you who believed, protect yourselves and your families from Hellfire which is fueled by people and stones.] ^Ata' Ibn Abi Rabah, may Allah raise his rank, explained this ayah as: [To learn how to perform the prayer and fasting, how to sell and buy, and how to marry and divorce.]

Chapter 3 Usurious Gain (Riba)

It is unlawful (haram) to do, consume, take, write down, or be a witness to usurious gain (riba). The riba comprises the following:

1. Selling gold for silver and silver for gold, gold for gold; or silver for silver--whether coined or not, made into jewelry, the ore itself, or other than that--with the condition of postponing the payment;
2. Selling the aforementioned items with the buyer or seller leaving one another before exchanging the payments;
3. Selling gold for gold or silver for silver with inequality in weight;
4. In the case of selling food for other food: It is not lawful to sell one type of food for another, such as wheat for barley, if one includes the condition of postponing the payment or if the buyer or seller leave one another before exchanging payments. In the case of similar types of food, such as wheat for wheat, one must avoid the aforementioned two conditions along with inequality. Hence, it is not lawful to sell barley for barley if there is inequality in volume, or the condition of postponing the payment is included, or the buyer and seller leave one another before exchanging payment.

Chapter 4 Some Rules of Selling (Bay^)

It is unlawful (haram) to sell:

1. What one has not received;

2. Meat for living animals;

3. The debt for another, such as for one to sell what "Zayd" owes him to "^Amr" for a price to be paid after a month.

4. What one does not own or is not authorized to sell;

5. What one did not see. According to a saying of ash-Shafi^iyy, if the merchandise was described, then this selling would be allowed;

6. What cannot be delivered;

7. What has no benefit;

8. What is not owned by one, such as the free person and unowned land;

9. The unknown;

10. The najas-filthy materials, such as blood;

11. Every intoxicant;

12. Unlawful articles, such as the tunbur, (a musical instrument which resembles the lute);

13. The lawful (halal) and pure article to whom you know will disobey Allah with it, like selling grapes to the one who will make alcohol out of them and a weapon to the one who will assault people with it;

14. Intoxicating substances;

15. The defective article without showing its defects.

The selling by and to the non-accountable is invalid, so the selling by the insane and non-pubescent is invalid. According to the school (madhhab) of Imam Ahmad, the selling by and to the child who attained the age of mental discrimination (mumayyiz) is allowed (if permitted by his guardian).

According to some scholars, it is also invalid to sell anything without exchanging an appropriate verbal format from both parties. According to others, the mutual consent of both parties is enough.

* Useful information:

* It is invalid to divide the inheritance of a deceased person or to sell the inheritance until the debts and the will have been fulfilled. Something may be sold to pay off a debt or fulfill the will. The expenses of performing Hajj and ^Umrah on behalf of the deceased must be taken out if the Hajj and ^Umrah were obligatory on him and he did not perform them. The inheritance is like a collateral held for that purpose. This is similar to the case of a slave who stole an amount of one-sixth of a dirham (daniq); selling him is invalid until what is due on him has been paid--unless the creditor gives permission to sell him.

* After establishing the price, it is unlawful (haram) for one to weaken the desire of the buyer or the seller with the purpose of selling to the buyer or buying from the seller. If this act is done after the contract has been conducted and during the period of choice of canceling the sale, it is more sinful.

* It is unlawful (haram) to buy food when it is expensive and needed in order to hoard it and sell it later for a higher price.

* It is unlawful (haram) to bid a higher price for an article in order to deceive another.

* It is unlawful (haram) to separate the female slave from her child before the child is at the age of mental discrimination (mumayyiz).

* It is unlawful (haram) to lie, cheat, or betray in measuring articles by volume, weight, arm length, or count.

* It is unlawful (haram) to lend money to the buyer with the condition to sell him cotton, for example, at a higher price for the sake of the loan. It is unlawful (haram) to lend money to the tailor or any other hired person with the condition to hire that person for less than the going rate for the sake of that loan. It is unlawful (haram) to lend money to the farmers with the condition the farmers sell the loaners their harvest at a slightly lower price.

Many other dealings of the people of this time, are also unlawful (haram) i.e., they are Islamically illegal. Hence, the one who seeks the reward from Allah, subhanah, and his safety in the Hereafter and in this life, must learn what is lawful (halal) and what is unlawful (haram) from a scholar who is pious, sincere, and caring for his Religion. Seeking the lawful (halal) is obligatory upon every Muslim.

Chapter 5 Supporting Dependents, Including One's Wife

The one who is solvent is obligated to support his poor parents and grandparents even if they were able to earn their living. He is also obligated to support his descendants, i.e., his children and grandchildren who are poor and cannot earn their living or who are non-pubescent or who are unable to earn their living because of some ailment.

The husband is obligated to support his wife and pay her marriage payment (mahr). If he divorces his wife without a reason from her, he must give her a gift (mut^ah).

The owner of slaves and animals must support them, must not charge them with more work than they can bear, and must not beat them unjustly.

Chapter 6 Obligations of the Wife

The wife is obligated to obey her husband in allowing him to enjoy her body except in what is not lawful. Without her husband's permission, she cannot fast the optional fasting or leave his house.

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Obligations and Sins

Chapter 1 Obligations of the Heart

Among the obligations of the heart are:

1. To have the belief in Allah and what He revealed;
2. To have the belief in the Messenger of Allah and what he conveyed;
3. To have the sincerity (ikhlas), which is to do the good deeds for the sake of Allah only and not for the sake of people;
4. To regret sinning;
5. To rely on Allah;
6. To fear Allah so as to perform one's obligations and refrain from the unlawful things;
7. To subjugate oneself to Allah and refrain from objecting to Him;
8. To exalt the rites of Allah;
9. To be thankful to Allah for His endowments by not using them in disobedience;
10. To be patient in performing what Allah made obligatory;
11. To be patient in refraining from what Allah, ta^ala, made unlawful;
12. To be patient with what Allah afflicted one;
13. To hate the Devil;
14. To hate sins;
15. To love Allah, His Speech (Kalam), His Messenger, the Companions and the Al of the Prophet, and the righteous Muslims.

Chapter 2 Sins of the Heart

Among the sins of the heart are:

1. The insincerity in performing the good deeds (riya'), i.e., to do the good deeds for the sake of the people--to be praised by them--and this nullifies their reward;
2. Priding oneself in obeying Allah (^ujb), and deeming one's worship was by one's own ability--forgetting the grace of Allah;
3. The doubt in Allah;
4. Feeling safe from the punishment of Allah;
5. Despairing of Allah's mercy;
6. Having arrogance (kibr) towards the slaves of Allah, which is to reject the truth said by someone or to look down on the people;
7. Have enmity in the heart for a Muslim--if he acted in accordance with this and did not hate it;
8. Envy, i.e., to hate and feel bitter about the endowment on a Muslim and act in accordance with this feeling;
9. Reminding a person of the charity given to him with the purpose of breaking his heart, like to say to the receiver of the charity: "Did I not give you a so-and-so on such and such a day?" This nullifies the reward;
10. Persisting on sinning;
11. Believing that Allah shall not forgive him;
12. Thinking ill of Muslims;
13. Denying the qadar;
14. Being happy with a sin done by oneself or others;
15. Betraying someone, even a blasphemer, such as to kill him after promising him safety;
16. Harming a Muslim deceptively;
17. Hating the Companions, the Al of the Prophet, and the righteous Muslims;
18. Being a miser in paying what Allah made obligatory (bukhl);
19. Abstaining from paying what Allah made obligatory (shuhh);
20. Having a strong desire to be rich in a bad, sinful manner (hirs);
21. Breaching the rules of glorification regarding the things Allah made glorified (istihanah);
22. Belittling what Allah rendered great, as in status and consequence, be it obedience, disobedience, the Qur'an, Islamic knowledge, Paradise, or Hellfire.

Chapter 3 Sins of the Abdomen

Among the sins of the abdomen are:

1. To consume the money of usurious gain (riba);
2. To consume the money of taxes on trade (maks);
3. To consume the money of others taken from them by force;
4. To consume the money from stealing;
5. To consume everything taken through a deal unlawful by the Islamic law (Shar^);
6. To consume alcohol. The punishment of the drinker who is free is forty lashes and the slave receives one-half of the punishment. The caliph may add to that as a disciplinary action (ta^zir);
7. To consume whatever is intoxicating, najas-filthy, and revolting;
8. To consume the money of the orphan;
9. To consume the money of the waqfs1 in a way contrary to the condition set by the one who established it;
10. To consume what was not given out of one's good will, but out of shyness.

Chapter 4 Sins of the Eye

Among the sins of the eye are:

1. For men to look at the faces and hands of marriageable women with desire and at other parts of their bodies with or without desire, and similarly, for the women to look between the navel and the knees of marriageable men with or without desire and to look at other parts of their bodies with desire;
2. To look at the unlawful nakedness (^awrat);
3. For a man or woman in private to needlessly uncover his/her private parts. However, the non-marriageable person or the person of the same sex may see other than what is between the navel and the knee if it is without desire;
4. To look down on a Muslim;
5. To look into someone else's house without his permission or to look at something he kept hidden.

Chapter 5 Sins of the Tongue

Among the sins of the tongue are:

1. To commit gossip (ghibah) i.e., to say something true about a Muslim in his absence that he hates to be said;
2. Talebearing between two or more Muslims to stir up trouble between them (namimah);
3. Stirring up trouble without passing words between others--even if it is goading animals to fight each other (tahrish);
4. To lie, i.e., to say what is different from the truth;
5. To commit perjury, i.e., to solemnly swear to a lie;
6. Every word which attributes adultery or fornication (zina) to a person or to one of his relatives either explicitly or implicitly with that intention. The punishment for he who is free is eighty lashes; the slave receives one-half of that;
7. To cuss the Companions;
8. To give false testimony;
9. To procrastinate paying one's debt when it is due and one is able;
10. To curse, mock, or utter what harms a Muslim;
11. To lie about Allah and His Messenger;
12. To make a false claim;
13. To divorce one's wife while she is menstruating or during a period of purity (tuhr) in which he had sexual intercourse with her (bid^iyy divorce);
14. To utter the dhihar, which is to say to one's wife: "I now do not copulate with you just as I do not copulate with my mother." If one does not divorce immediately after uttering this, he is obliged to perform an expiation (kaffarah) which is to free a Muslim slave who has no defects; if unable, to fast two consecutive lunar months; and if unable, to feed sixty poor Muslims sixty mudds.
15. To commit mistakes when reciting the Qur'an whether or not those mistakes change the meaning;
16. For the one who is solvent to beg;
17. To utter a vow (nadhr) with the purpose of depriving the inheritor;
18. To neglect leaving a will which states one's debts or trusts to others no one other than oneself knows;
19. To attribute oneself to other than one's own father or liberator, such as to say: "So and so liberated me," naming as his liberator someone other than the one who liberated him;
20. To propose to a woman after she is already engaged to another Muslim;
21. To give an Islamic legal opinion (fatwa) without knowledge;
22. To teach or to seek harmful knowledge without an Islamically valid reason;
23. To judge by other than the Law of Allah;
24. To wail and to lament the good attributes of the deceased as if he is hearing;
25 To utter words which encourage one to do the unlawful or discourage one from doing the obligatory;
26. To utter words which defame Islam, one of the prophets or scholars, the Qur'an, or any of the rites of Allah;
27. To play flutes;
28. To refrain from commanding the obligations (ma^ruf) and forbidding the unlawful (munkar) without an excuse;
29. To withhold the Obligatory Knowledge from the one who requests it;
30. To laugh because a Muslim passed gas or to laugh at a Muslim to degrade him;
31. To withhold testimony;
32. To neglect returning the Islamic salutation which is as-salamu ^alaykum;
33. For the one with the intention to be in a state of pilgrimage (muhrim) of the Hajj or ^Umrah or the one involved in the obligatory fast to give an arousing kiss intentionally;
34. To kiss those whom one is not allowed to kiss.

Chapter 6 Sins of the Ear

Among the sins of the ear are:

1. To listen to the conversation others meant to hide;
2. To listen to the flute, lute, and/or the rest of the unlawful sounds;
3. To listen to gossip about a Muslim that he hates to be said (ghibah), talebearing to stir up enmity among Muslims (namimah), and/or the like. One is not sinful if he hears this involuntarily and hates it, but if he is able, then he must renounce it.

Chapter 7 Sins of the Hands

Among the sins of the hands are:

1. To stint when measuring by volume, weight, or arm;
2. To steal; If one stole the equivalent of one-quarter of a dinar from its secured place, one's right hand would be amputated; if one stole again, the left foot would be amputated, then one's left hand, then one's right foot.
3. To loot;
4. To take the money of others by force;
5. To take the traders tax (maks);
6. To misappropriate the spoils of war (ghulul);
7. To kill; An expiation (kaffarah) is always due for killing, i.e., to free a Muslim slave who has no defects; if unable, one fasts two consecutive lunar months. Deliberate killing is punishable by death, except if the heirs of the killed person forgive the killer for an indemnity (diyah) or for free. In the case of killing by mistake or by mistake in a deliberate injury the due indemnity (diyah) is one-hundred camels for the free, male Muslim and half of that for the free, female Muslim. The indemnity (diyah) varies with the way the killing took place.
8. To beat a person unjustly;
9. To take and to give a bribe;
10. To burn an animal, unless there was no other way to avoid its harm;
11. To dismember an animal;
12. To play with the die or anything which contains gambling, including children's games;
13. To play unlawful musical instruments like the lute, rabab, flute, and instruments with strings;
14. To intentionally touch the marriageable woman without a barrier or to touch her lustfully with a barrier even if the person in this case is a non-marriageable kin or of the same sex;
15. To depict that which has a soul;
16. To refrain from paying one's Zakah or part of one's Zakah after it is due when one is able to pay it, or to pay an invalid Zakah, or to give the Zakah to those who do not deserve it;
17. To refuse to pay an employee his salary;
18. Without an excuse, to refuse to give the starving what fulfills his hunger and to refrain from saving a drowning person;
19. To write what is prohibited to say;
20. To betray, which is opposite to sincere advice, and this includes deeds, sayings, or conditions.

Chapter 8 Sins of the Private Parts

Among the sins of the private parts are:

1. To commit adultery or fornication, i.e., to insert the glans penis into the vagina;
2. To commit sodomy, i.e., to insert the glans penis into the anus; The penalty for the free sodomite is the same as the adulterer and fornicator. However, the penalty for the sodomitee is one-hundred lashes and one lunar year in exile; the slave receives half of this penalty.
3. For one to commit bestiality, i.e., to have sexual intercourse with animals, even if one owns them;
4. To masturbate by the hand of other than one's wife or female slave;
5. To copulate with the woman having menstrual or postpartum bleeding, or to copulate with the woman whose menstruation or postpartum bleeding had terminated but she did not perform her purificatory bathing (Ghusl) yet, or it was performed without the proper intention, or without any of its conditions being satisfied;
6. To disclose one's unlawful nakedness (^awrah) in front of those who are prohibited from looking at it, or to disclose one's unlawful nakedness (^awrah) while alone for no reason;
7. To face the Qiblah or turn one's back to it while urinating or defecating without placing a barrier in front of one which is two-thirds of a cubit or more high and not more than three cubits away, or if the barrier was less than two-thirds of a cubit high, except if the place of urination and defecation was prepared for that purpose, such as the toilet seat; In this prepared place, it is allowed to face or turn one's back to the Qiblah.
8. To urinate or defecate on a grave;
9. To urinate in a mosque--even if it was done in a container--and to urinate on the exalted;
10. To neglect circumcision until after becoming pubescent. This is allowed according to Imam Malik, however.

Chapter 9 Sins of the Foot

Among the sins of the foot are:

1. To walk towards committing a sin, such as walking to the ruler to inflict harm on a Muslim or the like or to walk to kill a Muslim unrightfully;
2. The unexcusable escaping of the slave, the wife, or he who owes a right to others from what is incumbent upon him--be it punishment, debt, obligatory spending, kindness to the parents, or raising the children;
3. To walk arrogantly with a strutting gait;
4. To step over the shoulders of people except for the purpose of filling a gap;
5. To pass in front of the person performing prayer if the conditions of the barrier placed in front of one's prayer place (sutrah) were fulfilled;
6. To extend the leg towards the Book of the Qur'an if it is not raised;
7. Every walking towards committing an unlawful matter;
8. Every abandonment of an obligation.

Chapter 10 Sins of the Body

Among the sins of the body are:

1. To treat one's father and mother with what harms them;
2. To flee the battlefield;
3. Severing the obligatory ties of kinship;
4. To inflict an apparent harm upon the neighbor, even if he is a blasphemer as long as he has a granted safety;
5. To dye the hair with black; Some scholars said it is allowed if it does not result in cheating or tricking.
6. For men to imitate women or women to imitate men in the clothing specific to the gender of the opposite sex and in other matters;
7. To wear the dress lower than the ankle bones out of vanity;
8. For a man to needlessly dye his hands and feet with henna;
9. To interrupt the obligatory worship without an excuse;
10. To interrupt the optional Hajj and ^Umrah;
11. To imitate the believer mockingly;
12. To spy on the people pursuing their defects;
13. To tattoo;
14. To shun a Muslim for more than three days without an Islamically valid reason;
15. To sit with an innovator or committer of enormous sins (fasiq) to entertain him in his sinning;
16. For a man to wear gold, silver, silk, or what is mostly silk--with the exception of a silver ring;
17. To be with the marriageable woman when a third person whom one would be shy in front of--either male or female--is not present (khalwah);
18. For a woman to travel without a non-marriageable male and the like;
19. To coerce a free person;
20. To have enmity with a highly ranked pious righteous Muslim (waliyy);
21. To help others to sin;
22. To circulate counterfeit money;
23. To use and to have golden and silver utensils;
24. To neglect an obligation, to do an obligation leaving out one of its integrals or conditions, or to intentionally commit an invalidator while performing an obligation;
25. To leave out the Friday Prayer (Jumu^ah) when it is one's obligation, even if one prayed Dhuhr;
26. For the inhabitants of a place to leave out praying the obligatory prayers in congregation;
27. To defer one's obligations until the time is over without an excuse;
28. To hunt with something that kills the animal by its weight, such as a stone;
29. To use an animal as a shooting target;
30. For the woman who is in a post marital-waiting period for death (mu^taddah) not to refrain during that period from adornment in clothing and other, wearing perfumes, and inexcusably leaving the home;
31. To stain the mosque with a najas-filth or to make it dirty even with something pure (tahir);
32. To delay performing Hajj until death, while able to perform it when alive;
33. To take a loan without the ability to pay it back, without informing the lender;
34. To refuse to grant more time for the one who is unable to pay his debt;
35. To spend money in disobedience;
36. To belittle the book of the Qur'an and every Islamic Knowledge and to enable the child who has not reached an age of mental discrimination (non-mumayyiz) to carry the Mushaf;
37. To change property line markers, i.e., to unjustly change the markers between one's own property and that of others;
38. To use the street in that which is unlawful;
39. To use a borrowed thing in other than what one is permitted, to keep a borrowed thing longer than permitted, or to lend a borrowed thing to someone else without permission;
40. To prevent others from using what is permissible--such as the meadow, or the collection of fire-wood from the unowned land, or the extraction of salt, gold, silver, and other resources from their unowned origin, i.e., to appropriate those resources and prevent people from grazing their animals, or using drinking water from a self-replenishing source;
41. To use the lost and found article (luqatah) before satisfying the conditions of notification;
42. To sit in a place where disobedience is being committed without an excuse;
43. Sponging in banquets, i.e., to enter without permission or be admitted out of shyness;
44. To commit inequity among the wives in terms of obligatory spending and overnight turns; The preference in attraction to one wife over another and in the heartly loving is not a sin.
45. For a woman to go out with the intention to pass by men to tempt them;
46. Sorcery;
47. To rebel against the caliph, like those who rebelled against ^Aliyy and fought him; Al-Bayhaqiyy said: "All who fought ^Aliyy were aggressors." Ash-Shafi^iyy said the same, even though some of the best Companions were among those aggressors. The waliyy is not impeccable of committing a sin, even if it is an enormous sin; however, he repents of it.
48. To accept taking care of an orphan or a mosque, or to act as a judge and the like knowing that one will be unable to perform the task appropriately;
49. To shelter an unjust person, i.e., to protect him from those who want to obtain their right from him;
50. To terrorize Muslims;
51. To waylay; Depending on the committed crime, the waylayer's punishment is either a disciplinary action (ta^zir), or cutting the right hand and the left foot, or killing him, or killing him and hanging his body on a pole.
52. To neglect fulfilling the vow (nadhr);
53. To continue fasting for two or more days without eating or drinking anything;
54. To occupy someone else's seat in a street or the like, to harmfully crowd him, or to take his turn.

Chapter 11 Repentance

The immediate repentance of sins is obligatory upon every accountable person and comprises: regretting, quitting, and intending not to return to them. If the sin is leaving out an obligation one makes it up, and if the sin involves a right to a human, one must satisfy it or seek the person's satisfaction.

And Allah Knows Best