Al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ - Ibn al-'Uthaymin - (8/369)

Al-Sharḥ al-MumtiʿIbn al-'Uthaymin

means that he must not sell it to anyone other than the original seller. This is based on the hadith of Ibn Umar, may Allah be pleased with them: “We used to sell camels for dirhams and take dinars in payment for them, and sell them for dinars and take dirhams in payment for them. I asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and he said: ‘There is no harm in taking them at the rate of that day, so long as you do not part company while anything remains outstanding between you.’” (1) This is the correct view.

He also held that there is nothing wrong if he resells it at cost price. He said that the reason for the prohibition is that, if he sells it at a profit, he has profited from something for which he has not borne liability—that is, something that has not entered into his liability. He also said that the reason for the prohibition is the fear of hostility and resentment, or that the seller may attempt to rescind the contract. For if the seller sees that the buyer has made a profit on it before moving it to his home, he may try to annul the contract by any means, resulting in dispute and disagreement.

However, the sounder view is that the prohibition in the hadith is to be understood according to its apparent meaning, and that it includes even selling it back to its original seller, selling it at cost, through a shared-ownership sale, at a loss, or in any other manner. This is the apparent meaning of the text, and we ought to adhere to the generality of the hadith. We have previously mentioned that an inferred effective cause is not strong enough to restrict a general text, for it is possible that such a cause is mistaken and that our inference of it is incorrect. Therefore, we should not restrict the general terms of the Quran and Sunnah merely by saying that the ruling is based on this effective cause.

Accordingly, this is one of the issues on which Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, differs, even though most of his preferred views are closer to what is correct than those of others. Every position he adopts, when you examine it carefully and reflect upon it,

(1) Its source has been cited previously on p. 208.

يعني لا يبيعه على غير بائعه؛ لحديث ابن عمر ﵄ كنا نبيع الإبل بالدراهم فنأخذ عنها الدنانير ونبيعها بالدنانير، فنأخذ عنها الدراهم، فسألت رسول الله ﷺ فقال: «لا بأس أن تأخذها بسعر يومها ما لم تتفرقا وبينكما شيء» (١)، وهذا هو الصحيح. واختار ـ أيضاً ـ أنه إذا باعه تولية فلا بأس، ومعنى تولية أي: برأس المال، وقال: إن العلة في النهي أنه إذا باعه بربح، فقد ربح فيما لم يضمن، أي: فيما لم يدخل في ضمانه، وأيضاً فإن العلة من النهي خوف العداوة والبغضاء، أو محاولة البائع فسخ العقد؛ لأن البائع إذا رأى أن المشتري قد ربح فيه قبل أن ينقله إلى بيته فربما يحاول فسخ العقد بأي طريق، فيحصل بذلك نزاع وخلاف، ولكن الأولى أن يقال: إن النهي في الحديث على ظاهره، وأنه يشمل حتى ما إذا باعه على بائعه، أو باعه تولية أو مشاركة أو مواضعة أو أي شيء، فهذا هو ظاهر النص، والذي ينبغي لنا أن نأخذ بعموم الحديث، وقد سبق لنا أن العلة المستنبطة لا تقوى على تخصيص العموم؛ لأنه من الجائز أن تكون هذه العلة خطأ وأن استنباطنا لها ليس بصواب، فلا نخصص بها عموم الكتاب والسنة بمجرد أن نقول: إن الحكم مبني على هذه العلة، وعلى هذا فيكون هذا من المواضع التي يخالف فيها شيخ الإسلام ﵀ مع أن غالب اختياراته أقرب إلى الصواب من غيره، كل ما اختاره إذا تأملته وتدبرته

(١) سبق تخريجه ص (٢٠٨).