al-Bukhari (46). Because if it is permissible for two to participate, it is permissible for them to be two groups; for the objective is to determine skill, and this is achieved in two groups, so it is permissible, as in horse racing. It is established that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) held races between trained horses and between horses that were not trained (48). Based on this, each party is in the position of one individual. If a group contracts the shooting contest to distinguish themselves (49) into two parties, the Qadi stated that it is permissible, which is the school of al-Shafi'i. It is possible that it is not permissible, because specifying [the participants] is a condition, and before they are distinguished, it is not determined who belongs to each of the two parties. According to this, once they are distinguished, they contract the shooting contest after that. According to the Qadi's view, the contract is permissible before the distinction. It is not permissible for them to divide by drawing lots, because it might fall upon the skilled shooters (51) in one of the parties and the unskilled (52) in the other, thus voiding the purpose of the contest. Rather, each party should have a leader; one chooses a person, then the other chooses a person likewise, until they are all distinguished. It is not permissible for the choice to be given to one of them for all [participants], nor for one to choose his entire party first, because he would choose all the skilled shooters for his party. It is not permissible to make one person the leader for both parties, because he would lean toward his own party and thus be subject to suspicion. It is not permissible for each of the two leaders to choose more than one person at a time (54), because that is further from equality. If they disagree on the beginner (55), lots are drawn between them.