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Hadith 35124
Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Malik ibn Aus
ibn al-Hadathan an-Nasri that one time he asked to exchange 100
dinars. He said, "Talha ibn Ubaydullah called me over and we made a
mutual agreement that he would make an exchange for me. He took the
gold and turned it about in his hand, and then said, 'I can't do it
until my treasurer brings the money to me from al-Ghaba.' Umar ibn al-
Khattab was listening and Umar said, 'By Allah! Do not leave him until
you have taken it from him!' Then he said, 'The Messenger of Allah,
may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Gold for silver is
usury except hand to hand. Wheat for wheat is usury except hand to
hand. Dates for dates is usury except hand to hand. Barley for barley
is usury except hand to hand." "'
Malik said, "When a man
buys dirhams with dinars and then finds a bad dirham among them and
wants to return it, the exchange of the dinars breaks down, and he
returns the silver and takes back his dinars. The explanation of what
is disapproved of in that is that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, said, 'Gold for silver is usury except
hand to hand.' and Umar ibn al-Khattab said, 'If someone asks you to
wait to be paid until he has gone back to his house, do not leave
him.' When he returns a dirham to him from the exchange after he has
left him, it is like a debt or something deferred. For that reason, it
is disapproved of, and the exchange collapses. Umar ibn al-Khattab
wanted that all gold, silver and food should not be sold for goods to
be paid later. He did not want there to be any delay or deferment in
any such sale, whether it involved one commodity or different sorts of
commodities."
Muwatta Malik Book 31, Hadith 38
← Previous Hadith
Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said heard Said ibn
al-Musayyab say, "Keeping gold and silver out of circulation is part
of working corruption in the land."
Malik said, "There is no
harm in buying gold with silver or silver with gold without measuring
if it is unminted or a piece of jewellery which has been made. Counted
dirhams and counted dinars should not be bought without reckoning
until they are known and counted. To abandon number and buy them at
random would only be to speculate. That is not part of the business
transactions of Muslims. As for what is weighed of unminted objects
and jewellery, there is no harm in buying such things without
measuring. To buy them without measuring is like buying wheat, dried
dates, and such food-stuffs, which are sold without measuring, even
though things like them are measured "
Malik spoke about
buying a Quran, a sword or a signet ring which had some gold or
silver work on it with dinars or dirhams. He said, "The value of the
object bought with dinars, which has gold in it is looked at. If the
value of the gold is up to one-third of the price, it is permitted and
there is no harm in it if the sale is hand to hand and there is no
deferment in it. When something is bought with silver which has silver
in it, the value is looked at. If the value of the silver is one-
third, it is permitted and there is no harm in it if the sale is hand
to hand. That is still the way of doing things among us." Muwatta Malik Book 31, Hadith 37
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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