Maqasid Analysis of the Shariah Rules Pertaining to Combining Contracts

Abstract

Several Shariah texts suggest that combining contracts in one transaction is not permitted, such as having multiple sales in one transaction, combining a sale and a loan contract, or combining any two financial contracts in one transaction. However, it is no secret that our contemporary financial transactions may involve multiple inter-dependent and inter-related contracts. Hence, it is necessary to analyze the Shariah objectives behind such prohibition to help interpret those texts and assess when it is acceptable or unacceptable from Shariah perspective to combine contracts in a single transaction. The paper comes to address this important issue, which has been somewhat obscure in the Fiqh literature, and which has not received due attention in the contemporary Fiqh writings.