Hadith 39655

Yahya related to me from Malik from a reliable source from Amribn Shuayb from his father from his father's father that the Messengerof Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbadetransactions in which nonrefundable deposits were paid.Maliksaid, "That is, in our opinion, but Allah knows best, that forinstance, a man buys a slave or slave-girl or rents an animal and thensays to the person from whom he bought the slave or leased the animal,'I will give you a dinar or a dirham or whatever on the condition thatif I actually take the goods or ride what I have rented from you, thenwhat I have given you already goes towards payment of the goods orhire of the animal. If I do not purchase the goods or hire the animal,then what I have given you is yours without liability on your part.' "Malik said, "According to the way of doing things with usthere is nothing wrong in bartering an arabic speaking merchant slavefor abyssinian slaves or any other type that are not his equal ineloquence, trading, shrewdness, and know-how. There is nothing wrongin bartering one slave like this for two or more other slaves with astated delay in the terms if he is clearly different. If there is noappreciable difference between the slaves, two should not be barteredfor one with a stated delay in the terms even if their racial type isdifferent."Malik said, "There is nothing wrong in sellingwhat has been bought in such a transaction before taking possession ofall of it as long as you receive the price for it from some one otherthan the original owner."Malik said, "An addition to theprice must not be made for a foetus in the womb of its mother when sheis sold because that is gharar (an uncertain transaction). It is notknown whether the child will be male or female, good-looking or ugly,normal or handicapped, alive or dead. All these things will affect theprice."Malik said that in a transaction where a slave orslave-girl was bought for one hundred dinars with a stated creditperiod that if the seller regretted the sale there was nothing wrongin him asking the buyer to revoke it for ten dinars which he would payhim immediately or after a period and he would forgo his right to thehundred dinars which he was owed.Malik said, "However, ifthe buyer regrets and asks the seller to revoke the sale of a slave orslave-girl in consideration of which he will pay an extra ten dinarsimmediately or on credit terms, extended beyond the original term,that should not be done. It is disapproved of because it is as if, forinstance, the seller is buying the one hundred dinars which is not yetdue on a year's credit term before the year expires for a slave-girland ten dinars to be paid immediately or on credit term longer thanthe year. This falls into the category of selling gold for gold whendelayed terms enter into it."Malik said that it was notproper for a man to sell a slave-girl to another man for one hundreddinars on credit and then to buy her back for more than the originalprice or on a credit term longer than the original term for which hesold her. To understand why that was disapproved of in that case, theexample of a man who sold a slave-girl on credit and then bought herback on a credit term longer than the original term was looked at. Hemight have sold her for thirty dinars with a month to pay and then buyher back for sixty dinars with a year or half a year to pay. Theoutcome would only be that his goods would have returned to him justlike they were and the other party would have given him thirty dinarson a month's credit against sixty dinars on a year or half a year'scredit. That was not to be done.