Hadith 32437

Malik said, "Another example of that is that the Messenger ofAllah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade the salecalled muzabana and granted an indulgence in the ariya for computingthe equivalent in dates. It was distinguished between them that themuzabana-sale was based on shrewdness and trade, and the ariya salewas based on a favour rendered, and there was no shrewdness in it."Malik said, "A man must not buy food for a fourth, a third,or a fraction of a dirham on the basis that he be given that food oncredit. There is no harm in a man buying food for a fraction of adirham on credit and then he gives a dirham and takes goods with whatremains of his dirham because he gave the fraction he owed as silver,and took goods to make up the rest of his dirham. There is no harm inthat transaction."Malik said, "There is no harm in a manplacing a dirham with another man and then taking from him known goodsfor a fourth, third, or a known fraction. If there was not a knownprice on the goods and the man said, 'I will take them from you forthe price of each day,' this is not halal because there isuncertainty. It might be less one time, and more another time, andthey would not part with a known sale."Malik said, "Ifsomeone sells some food without measuring precisely and does notexclude any of it from the sale and then it occurs to him to buy someof it, it is not good for him to buy any of it except what it would bepermitted for him to exclude from it. That is a third or less. If itis more than a third, it becomes muzabana and is disapproved. He mustonly purchase from what he would be permitted to exclude, and he isonly permitted to exclude a third or less than that. This is the wayof doing things in which there is no dispute with us."