The word · Law & life

غَرَر

Gharar

Excessive uncertainty in a contract, which makes the deal invalid.

Also written · Gharrar · Garar · Ghara · Gharar fahish · bay al-gharar · uncertainty · excessive uncertainty · ambiguity in contracts · speculation · risk

The meaning

What Gharar means in Islam

The Prophet forbade the gharar sale, and the stock examples jurists give are the young of an animal not yet born, and the fish still in the water. The problem is not risk, which every honest trade carries, but not knowing what you are buying, at what price, or whether it exists at all. Minor uncertainty is tolerated, since no contract is perfectly precise. Scholars invoke gharar when questioning conventional insurance and some derivative contracts, and takaful was designed as an answer to it.

Evidence · Sunnah · Established in the authentic Sunnah