Yahya related to me from Malik that Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn Qusaytsaw Said ibn al-Musayyab sell gold counterpoising for gold. He pouredhis gold into one pan of the scales, and the man with whom he wascounterpoising put his gold in the other pan of the scale and when thetongue of the scales was balanced, they took and gave.Maliksaid, "According to the way things are done among us there is no harmin selling gold for gold, and silver for silver by counterpoisingweight, even if 11 dinars are taken for 10 dinars hand to hand, whenthe weight of gold is equal, coin for coin, even if the number isdifferent. Dirhams in such a situation are treated the same way asdinars."Malik said, "If, when counterpoising gold for goldor silver for silver, there is a difference of weight, one partyshould not give the other the value of the difference in silver orsomething else. Such a transaction is ugly and a means to usurybecause if one of the parties were permitted to take the differencefor 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 formany times the value of the difference in order to permit thecompletion of the transaction between the two parties.Maliksaid, "If he had really been sold the difference without anything elsewith it, he would not have taken it for a tenth of the price for whichhe took it in order to put a 'legal front' on the transaction. Thisleads to allowing what is forbidden . The matter is forbidden."Malik said that it was not good when counterpoising to give goodold gold coins and put along with them unminted gold in exchange forworn kufic gold, which was unpopular and to then treat the exchange aslike for like.Malik said, "The commentary on why that isdisapproved is that the owner of the good gold uses the excellence ofhis 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 goldof the other party, the other party would not have counterpoised theunminted gold for his kufic gold, and the deal would have beenrefused."It is like a man wanting to buy three sa of ajwadried dates for two sa and a mudd of kabis dates, and on being toldthat it was not good, then offering two sa of kabis and a sa of poordates desiring to make the sale possible. That is not good because theowner of the ajwa should not give him a sa of ajwa for a sa of poordates. He would only give him that because of the excellence of kabisdates."Or it is like a man asking some one to sell him threesa of white wheat for two and a half sa of Syrian wheat, and beingtold that it was not good except like for like, and so offering two saof wheat and one sa of barley intending to make the sale possiblebetween them. That is not good because no one would have given a sa ofbarley for a sa of white wheat had that sa been by itself. It was onlygiven 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 shouldonly be sold like for like, are concerned, something disliked and ofpoor quality should not be put with something good and desirable inorder to make the sale possible and to make a bad situation halal.When something of desirable quality is put with something of poorquality and it is only included so that its excellence in quality isnoticed, 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 havepaid any attention. It is only accepted by the buyer because of thesuperiority of what comes with it over his own goods. Transactionsinvolving gold, silver, or food, must not have anything of thisdescription enter into them. If the owner of the poor quality goodswants to sell them, he sells them on their own, and does not putanything with them. There is no harm if it is like that."
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 31, Hadith 39
Arabic reference: Book 31, Hadith 1331