Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with him—said, “I do not think that anything else is treated differently,” meaning that items other than food fall under the same ruling. This is stated explicitly as well, for Imām Aḥmad narrates: “When you buy something, do not sell it until you have taken possession of it,” and Abū Dāwūd records: “He forbade that merchandise be sold at the very place where it was purchased until the trader moves it to his own premises.”

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah and his student Ibn al-Qayyim—may Allah have mercy on them—remarked: “The rationale behind the prohibition of selling before taking possession is the buyer’s inability to secure delivery, for the seller may or may not hand the item over—especially if he sees that the buyer has already made a profit. In such a case he strives to rescind the sale, either by outright denial or by some stratagem for annulment. The same principle is reinforced by the prohibition on profiting from what one has not yet guaranteed.”

Muslims must therefore adhere strictly to this rule. When a Muslim purchases a commodity, he must not dispose of it—by resale or in any other way—until he has taken full and proper possession of it. Many people, however, are negligent or willfully ignore this: they buy goods and then sell them on even though they have never taken delivery from the original seller, or have received only a partial hand-over that does not count as true possession.