The act or process of taking risk, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In its juristic sense, mukhatarah is a condition for the entitlement to profit in business (based on the shari’a maxim “al-kharaj bi al-dhaman”- الخراج بالضمان). In other words, risk taking is the very reason for entitlement to income (gain is the result of risk taking). For example, an investor is not entitled to a return on his investments unless he puts them at risk. Likewise, a seller would be entitled to profit only and only if he takes possession of the items to be sold (commodities, products, etc) before venturing into selling them.

Mukhatarah (مخاطرة) is Arabic for risk taking.