Denotation assessment of the hadith “innamā yuḥallil al-kalām wa yuḥarrim al-kalām”

The traditions in which the sentence “innamā yuḥallil al-kalām wa yuḥarrim al-kalām” (It is statements that make it lawful as well as unlawful) is contained, have been cited in different chapters of Islamic law (fiqh) including “bay‘” (trading), “muzāra‘a” (contract of share-cropping), “muḍāraba” (sleeping partnership), “nikāḥ” (marriage), and “‘itq” (setting free a slave). The major discussions made in these chapters with regard to the above traditions pertain to the validity of the formula (sīgha) in these contracts (‘uqūd). One of the discussions that have been neglected about these traditions is the investigation of them from the aspect of negation of validity of non-stipulated conditions (shurūṭ ghayr muṣarraḥa); that is whether or not this tradition has any denotation for lack of validity of non-stipulated conditions. Having referred to the sentence “innamā yuḥallil al-kalām wa yuḥarrim al-kalām” some of the jurisprudents have claimed that the non-stipulated conditions are not valid and that merely the condition that has been declared verbally can be effectual. As for the meaning of such traditions, the jurisprudents have mentioned different probabilities. The only probability that proves the above claim is that the term “kalām” (statement) would mean “lafḍ” (word) and that the term “innamā” would denote “ḥaṣr” (restriction). Having applied a descriptive-analytical method and having made use of library-oriented data, this article concludes – by investigating the isnad and denotation of this tradition – that such a probability is invalid and the above traditions cannot question the validity of non-stipulated conditions.