A Christian approached him, enticed him, and even offered to increase the price of the house. Someone asked: “Do you deem it permissible for him to sell his house to that man—be he a Christian, a Jew, or a Magian?”
He replied, “I do not deem it permissible. How could he sell his house to an unbeliever who would commit disbelief in God inside it? Selling it to a Muslim is far more pleasing to me.”
This is an explicit ruling that the sale is forbidden.
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥārith also reports: it was said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh, “A man leases his home to a dhimmī who takes up residence there, while he knows that the tenant will drink wine in it and engage in idolatry.”
He answered, “Ibn ʿAwn used to lease only to the people of the dhimma, saying, ‘I overawe them.’ ”
Someone remarked, “It is as though he wished to humiliate the dhimmīs by doing so.”
He responded, “No. What he meant was that he disliked overawing Muslims. He would say, ‘When I come to collect rent from a Muslim, I intimidate him; but if the tenant is a dhimmī, it is lighter on me.’ ”
Abū ʿAbd Allāh expressed amazement at this stance of Ibn ʿAwn, as far as I observed. Al-Athram records the report in exactly the same manner, stating in his own wording: “I said to Abū ʿAbd Allāh…”
(1) In manuscript A the copyist added the word hal (“is it?”) in the margin before the phrase tara (“you see”).
(2) The word yakfur (“he declares disbelief”) is missing from manuscript A.
(3) The person meant is Ibrahim b. al-Harith b. Musab b. al-Walid b. Ubada b. al-Samit, one of Imam Ahmad’s senior disciples, classified in the twelfth generation. See Tabaqat al-Hanabila 1:94, no. 92; Tahdhib al-Tahdhib 1:113, no. 197.
(4) He is most likely Abd Allah b. Awn b. Abi Awn b. Yazid, al-Hilali, al-Kharraz, al-Baghdadi—a trustworthy, devout transmitter of the tenth generation who died in 232 AH/846 CE; Muslim and al-Nasaʾi transmit from him. See Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:439, no. 527. It could, however, be the jurist Abd Allah b. Awn b. Artaban al-Basri of the sixth generation, who died in 150 AH/767 CE; this second identification seems more plausible to me because, as a jurist, his opinions and practice would carry weight with Imam Ahmad. See Taqrib al-Tahdhib 1:439, no. 526.
(5) Manuscripts B, C, D, and Ti read yarghibuhum (“he encourages them”), but the reading I have adopted is preferable because the context demands it.
(6) Manuscripts B and Ti read yarghab (“he desires”), whereas the correct wording is the one I have retained, as in the previous note; the passage concerns the collection of rent and is intended to press the tenant, who is liable for payment.
(7) The word kana (“was”) is absent from manuscripts C and D.