"A woman of Quraish, from banu Makhzum, stole, and she was brought to the Prophet. They said: 'Who will speak to him concerning her?' They said: 'Usamah bin Zaid.' So he came to the Prophet and spoke to him. But he rebuked him, and he said; 'Among the Children of Israel, if a noble person stole, they would let him go. But if a low-class person stole, they would cut off his hand. By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, if Fatimah bint Muhammad were to steal, I would cut off her hand.""
Sunan an-Nasa'i Book 46, Hadith 31
Malik related to me that Yahya ibn Said heard Said ibn al-
Musayyab say, "When Umar ibn al-Khattab came from Mina, he made his
camel kneel at al-Abtah, and then he gathered a pile of small stones
and cast his cloak over them and dropped to the ground. Then he raised
his hands to the sky and said, 'O Allah! I have become old and my
strength has weakened. My flock is scattered. Take me to You with
nothing missed out and without having neglected anything.' Then he
went to Madina and addressed the people. He said, 'People! Sunan have
been laid down for you. Obligations have been placed upon you. You
have been left with a clear way unless you lead people astray right
and left.' He struck one of his hands on the other and then said,
'Take care lest you destroy the ayat of stoning so that one will say,
"We do not find two hadds in the Book of Allah." The Messenger of
Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, stoned, so we have
stoned. By He in Whose Hand my self is, had it not been that people
would say that Umar ibn al-Khattab has added to the Book of Allah ta-
ala, we would have written it, "The full-grown man and the full-grown
woman, stone them absolutely." We have certainly recited that.'"
Malik said, "Yahya ibn Said said Said ibn al-Musayyab said,
'Dhu'l-Hijja had not passed before Umar was murdered, may Allah have
mercy on him.' "
Yahya said that he had heard Malik say, "As
for his words 'The full-grown man and the full-grown woman' he meant,
'The man and the woman who have been married, stone them absolutely.'
"
Muwatta Malik Book 41, Hadith 10
Yahya related to me from Malik that Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn Qusayt
saw Said ibn al-Musayyab sell gold counterpoising for gold. He poured
his gold into one pan of the scales, and the man with whom he was
counterpoising put his gold in the other pan of the scale and when the
tongue of the scales was balanced, they took and gave.
Malik
said, "According to the way things are done among us there is no harm
in selling gold for gold, and silver for silver by counterpoising
weight, even if 11 dinars are taken for 10 dinars hand to hand, when
the weight of gold is equal, coin for coin, even if the number is
different. Dirhams in such a situation are treated the same way as
dinars."
Malik said, "If, when counterpoising gold for gold
or silver for silver, there is a difference of weight, one party
should not give the other the value of the difference in silver or
something else. Such a transaction is ugly and a means to usury
because if one of the parties were permitted to take the difference
for a separate price, it could be as if he had bought it separately,
so he would be permitted. Then it would be possible for him to ask for
many times the value of the difference in order to permit the
completion of the transaction between the two parties.
Malik
said, "If he had really been sold the difference without anything else
with it, he would not have taken it for a tenth of the price for which
he took it in order to put a 'legal front' on the transaction. This
leads to allowing what is forbidden . The matter is forbidden."
Malik said that it was not good when counterpoising to give good
old gold coins and put along with them unminted gold in exchange for
worn kufic gold, which was unpopular and to then treat the exchange as
like for like.
Malik said, "The commentary on why that is
disapproved is that the owner of the good gold uses the excellence of
his old gold coins as an excuse to throw in the unminted gold with it.
Had it not been for the superiority of his (good) gold over the gold
of the other party, the other party would not have counterpoised the
unminted gold for his kufic gold, and the deal would have been
refused.
"It is like a man wanting to buy three sa of ajwa
dried dates for two sa and a mudd of kabis dates, and on being told
that it was not good, then offering two sa of kabis and a sa of poor
dates desiring to make the sale possible. That is not good because the
owner of the ajwa should not give him a sa of ajwa for a sa of poor
dates. He would only give him that because of the excellence of kabis
dates.
"Or it is like a man asking some one to sell him three
sa of white wheat for two and a half sa of Syrian wheat, and being
told that it was not good except like for like, and so offering two sa
of wheat and one sa of barley intending to make the sale possible
between them. That is not good because no one would have given a sa of
barley for a sa of white wheat had that sa been by itself. It was only
given because of the excellence of Syrian wheat over the white wheat.
This is not good. It is the same as the case of the unminted gold."
Malik said, "Where gold, silver and food, things which should
only be sold like for like, are concerned, something disliked and of
poor quality should not be put with something good and desirable in
order to make the sale possible and to make a bad situation halal.
When something of desirable quality is put with something of poor
quality and it is only included so that its excellence in quality is
noticed, something is being sold which if it had been sold on its own,
would not have been accepted and to which the buyer would not have
paid any attention. It is only accepted by the buyer because of the
superiority of what comes with it over his own goods. Transactions
involving gold, silver, or food, must not have anything of this
description enter into them. If the owner of the poor quality goods
wants to sell them, he sells them on their own, and does not put
anything with them. There is no harm if it is like that."
Muwatta Malik Book 31, Hadith 39