An excessive degree of gharar that renders a contract or transaction void from a shari’a point of view. Gharar represents some form of asymmetric or incomplete information and/or deception, in addition to risk and uncertainty as to the subject matter of a commutative contract (exchange-based contract). For gharar to invalidate a contract, it must affect its main elements: the underlying price and object of exchange. An example is the sale of an unborn animal (while it is still in its mother’s womb (in the shari’a parlance, this sale is known as ba’i habal al-hablah). Major gharar arises in such a case because the unborn animal may be still-born, and hence the buyer would receives a dead animal for the money paid to the seller. Conventional finance is notable for gharar-based products and dealings such as derivatives (options, swaps, futures, etc), insurance, short sale, and so on.

Gharar fahish (or major gharar) is one of three degrees of gharar, the other two being gharar yaseer (minor gharar) and gharar mutawassit (moderate or mild gharar).