Exchanging currency and commodities

Translation

Narrated Az-Zuhri from Malik bin Aus: That the latter said, "Who has change?" Talha said, "I (will have change) when our storekeeper comes from the forest." Malik bin Aus narrated from `Umar bin Al-Khattab: Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "The bartering of gold for gold is Riba (usury), except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and wheat grain for wheat grain is usury except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and dates for dates is usury except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and barley for barley is usury except if it is from hand to hand and equal in amount

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Narrated Ibn Shihab: that Malik bin Aus said, "I was in need of change for one-hundred Dinars. Talha bin 'Ubaidullah called me and we discussed the matter, and he agreed to change (my Dinars). He took the gold pieces in his hands and fidgeted with them, and then said, "Wait till my storekeeper comes from the forest." `Umar was listening to that and said, "By Allah! You should not separate from Talha till you get the money from him, for Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said, 'The selling of gold for gold is Riba (usury) except if the exchange is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and similarly, the selling of wheat for wheat is Riba (usury) unless it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and the selling of barley for barley is usury unless it is from hand to hand and equal in amount, and dates for dates, is usury unless it is from hand to hand and equal in amount

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Nafi' reported that Ibn 'Umar told him that a person of the tribe of Laith said that Abu Sa'id al-Kludri narrated it (the above-mentioned hadith) from tile Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) in a narration of Qutaiba. So 'Abduliali and Nafi' went along with him, and in the hadith transmitted by Ibn Rumh (the words are) that Nafi' said:'Abdullah (b. 'Umar) went and I along with the person belonging to Banu Laith entered (the house) of Sa'id al-Khudri, and he ('Abdullah b. Umar) said: I have been informed that you say that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) forbade the sale of silver with silver except in case of like for like, and sale of gold for gold except in case of like for like. Abu Sa'id pointed towards this eyes and his ears with his fingers and said: My eyes saw, and my ears listened to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying: Do not sell gold for gold, and do not sell silver for silver except in case of like for like, and do not increase something of it upon something, and do not sell for ready money something, not present, but hand to hand

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Abu Huraira and Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (Allah be pleased with them) reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) deputed a person from Banu 'Adi al-Ansari to collect revenue from Khaibar. He came with a fine quality of dates, whereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to him:Are all the dates of Khaibar like this? He said: Allah's Messenger, it is not so. We buy one sa' of (fine quality of dates) for two sa's out of total output (including even the inferior quality of dates), whereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: Don't do that, but like for like, or sell this (the inferior quality and receive the price) and then buy with the price of that, and that would make up the measure

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Abu Huraira (Allah be pleased with him) reported that Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) deputed a person to collect revenue from Khaibar. He brought fine quality of dates, whereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said:Are all the dates of Khaibar like this)? He said: No. We got one sa' (of fine dates) for two sa's (of inferior dates), and (similarly) two sa's for three sa's. Thereupon Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: Don't do that rather sell the inferior quality of dates for dirhams (money), and then buy the superior quality with the help of dirhams

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Abu Nadra reported: I asked Ibn Abbas (Allah be pleased with them) about the conversion (of gold and silver for silver and gold). We said: Is it hand to hand exchange? I said: Yes. whereupon he said: There is no harm in it. I informed Abu Sa'id about it, telling him that I had asked Ibn 'Abbas about it and he said: Is it hand to hand exchange? I said: Yes, whereupon he said: There is no harm in it. He (the narrator) said, or he said like it: We will soon write to him, and he will not give you this fatwa (religious verdict). He said: By Allah, someone of the boy-servants of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) brought dates, but he refused to accept them (on the plea) that those did not seem to be of the dates of our land. He said: Something had happened to the dates of our land, or our dates. So I got these dates (in exchange by giving) excess (of the dates of our land), whereupon he said: You made an addition for getting the fine dates (in exchange) which tantamounts, to interest; don't do that (in future). Whenever you find some doubt (as regards the deteriorating quality of) your dates, sell them, and then buy the dates that you like

Grading

Authentic by consensus — the collection is graded as a whole

Translation

Narrated Nafi': "Ibn 'Umar and I went to Abu Sa'eed and he narrated to us: 'the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said - and I heard him with these [two] ears: "Do not sell gold for gold except kind for kind, nor sliver for silver except kind for kind, do not exchange more of one than the other, and do not sell what is not present from them for what is present." [Abu 'Eisa said:] There are narrations on this topic from Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman, Abu Hurairah, Hisham bin 'Amir, Al-Bara', Zaid bin Arqam, Fadalah bin 'Ubaid, Abu Bakrah, Ibn 'Umar, Abu Ad-Darda', and Bilal. [He said:] The Hadith of Abu Sa'eed, from the Prophet (ﷺ) [about Riba] is a Hasan Sahih Hadith. This is acted upon according to the people of knowledge among the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) and others, except for what has been related from Ibn 'Abbas; he did not see any harm in exchanging gold for gold or silver for silver, more for less, when it is done hand in hand, and he said: "Riba' is only in credit." Similar it has been related from some of his companions. It has been related that Ibn 'Abbas changed his opinion when Abu Sa'eed narrated it to him from the Prophet (ﷺ). The first view is more correct. And this is acted upon according to the people of knowledge [among the Companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) and others]. It is the view of Sufyan Ath-Thawri, Ibn Al-Mubarak, Ash-Shafi'i, Ahmad, and Ishaq. It has been reported that Ibn Al-Mubarak said: "There is no difference over exchange

Grading

• Ahmad Muhammad Shakir·Sahih
• Al-Albani·Sahih
• Bashar Awad Maarouf·Hasan Sahih
• Zubair Ali Zai·Sahih

Translation

Muslim bin Yasar and Abdullah bin Ubaid who was called Ibn Hurmuz narrated that 'Ubadah bin As-Samit and Muawiyah met at a stopping place on the road. 'Ubadah told them:"The Messenger of Allah forbade selling gold for gold, silver for silver, dates for dates, wheat for wheat, barley for barley"- one of them said: "salt for salt," but the other did not say it-"unless it was equal amount for equal amount, like for like." One of them said: "Whoever gives more or takes more has engaged in Riba," but he other one did not say it. "And he commanded us to sell gold for silver and silver for gold, and wheat for barley and barley for wheat, hand to hand, however we wanted

Grading

• Abu Ghuddah·Sahih
• Al-Albani·Sahih
• Zubair Ali Zai·Hasan

Translation

Muslim bin Yasar and 'Abdullah bin 'Ubaid said: "Ubadah bin As-Samit and Muawiyah met at a stopping place on the road. 'Ubadah said: 'The Messenger of Allah forbade us to sell gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates"' - one of them said: "salt for salt, " but the other did not say "unless it was equal amount for equal amount, like for like." One of them said: "Whoever gives more or takes more has engaged in Riba," but the other one did not say it. "And the commanded us to sell gold for silver and silver for gold, and wheat for barley and barley for wheat, hand to hand, however we wanted.' News of this hadith reached Muawiyah and he stood up and said: 'What is the matter with men who narrate Hadiths from the Messenger of Allah when we accompanied him and we never heard him say it? News of that reached 'Ubadah bin As-Samit and he stood up and repeated the Hadith, then he said: 'We will narrate what we heard from the Messenger of Allah, whether Muawiyah likes it or not."' Qatadah contradicted him, he reported it from Muslim bin Yasar, from Abu Al-=Ashath, from 'Ubadah

Grading

• Abu Ghuddah·Sahih
• Al-Albani·Sahih
• Zubair Ali Zai·Hasan

Translation

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

Grading

• Salim al-Hilali·Maqtu Sahih