regarding it. It is not considered to designate the rider, because the purpose is to know the speed of the horse, not the skill of the rider. Every case where designation is required, if it perishes, the contract is rescinded, and nothing else can replace it, because the contract was tied to the specific entity (ayn), so it is rescinded by the perishing of that entity. Also, the purpose is to know the skill of the archer or the speed of the horse, and knowledge of that is lost upon its death, and his skill cannot be known through another. That which does not require specific designation may be replaced due to an excuse or otherwise, and if it perishes, another can stand in its place. If they stipulate that he must not shoot with any other bow or any other arrow, or that he must not ride any other rider, these are corrupt conditions because they contradict the requirements of the contract, similar to the case where one stipulates a hit as being two hits.

The eighth condition is that the competition must be in hitting the target. If they say: 'The prize goes to the one of us who is furthest in shooting,' it is not valid, because the purpose of shooting is hitting the target, not the distance. The objective of shooting is either killing the enemy, wounding him, hunting, or the like, and all of this is achieved by hitting the target, not by shooting from a distance.

Section: Archery matches are of three types. One of them is called 'al-mubadarah' (the race to hit), which is for them to say: 'Whoever is first to reach five hits out of twenty shots is the winner.' Whichever of them reaches it first, while they are equal in the number of rounds, has won. If they shoot ten [rounds] each, and one of them hits five while the other does not hit five, the one who hit five is the winner, because he reached five first, regardless of whether the other hit four, less than that, or did not hit anything. There is no need to complete the round of shots because the victory was achieved by his reaching the number they stipulated for victory. If each of them hits five out of ten, there is no winner between them, and they do not complete the round because all of the stipulated hits have been achieved, and they are equal in them. If one of them shoots ten and hits five, and the other shoots nine and hits four, no judgment of victory or non-victory is made until he shoots the tenth. If he misses it, the first has won, and if he hits it, there is no winner between them. If he had only hit three out of nine, then...