Combining Contracts Together: An Analysis from Maqasid Perspective

This paper seeks to analyze the objectives of the Shariah prohibition of combining contracts together. This is important as it is really feared that some interpretations of the Shariah texts suggest such prohibition may have unnecessarily and arbitrarily burdened peoples' financial transactions. The paper attempts to reconcile those texts and the general Shariah objectives of Islamic financial law. Following the inductive approach to investigate all relevant Shariah texts, the paper adopts an analytical approach to assess and analyze the said texts in order to come up with the right criteria that would outline the prospectus of an unlawful combination of contracts. The paper concludes that understanding the Shariah objectives behind its rules is critical for their proper understanding and right application. This is to exclude from prohibition matters whose textual apparent meaning may suggest an ungrounded and unreasonable prohibition, such as combining contacts when this does not lead to any Shariah caution, especially that contemporary financial transactions may necessitate such combinations. The research also concludes that combining a loan with the condition that the borrower enters into a financial transaction with the lender does not necessarily lead to Riba since the benefit attaches to the lender without harming the lender by any means lawful. The research deals with an issue that did not receive sufficient attention in terms of study and analysis. Its importance lies in setting the parameters that determine the unlawful combination of contracts from the lawful one, especially in transactions suspected of Riba or Gharar.