- Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “I asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, I sell camels in al-Baqīʿ. At times I sell for gold dinars and take silver dirhams, and at other times I sell for dirhams and take dinars—I take one currency for the other and give one for the other.’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, ‘There is no harm in taking them at the day’s going rate, provided the two of you do not separate while anything between you remains unsettled.’ ” It was narrated by the Five, and al-Ḥākim declared it authentic. (1)
Degree of authenticity
The ḥadith is ḥasan.
Al-Tirmidhī said, “We do not know it as a Prophetic (marfūʿ) report except through the narration of Simāk ibn Ḥarb,” and Simāk has been subject to critique. It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Mājah, al-Dāramī, al-Dāraquṭnī, al-Ḥākim, and al-Bayhaqī through various chains from Ḥammād ibn Salamah—Simāk ibn Ḥarb—Saʿīd ibn Jubayr—from Ibn ʿUmar. Al-Ḥākim said, “Authentic according to the criterion of Muslim,” and al-Dhahabī concurred.
Ibn Ḥibbān judged it ṣaḥīḥ, and al-Subkī graded it ḥasan in his supplement to al-Nawawī’s Majmūʿ. Regarding whether the report is marfūʿ or mawqūf, Ibn al-Mulqin and Ibn al-Humām favored the marfūʿ position, whereas Ibn Ḥajar considered it mawqūf.
Glossary
– al-ibil: camels, male or female; a collective noun with no singular of the same root. Its plurals are ābāl and abīl.
– al-Baqīʿ: originally the camel market of Medina, which from the Prophet’s time onward became the city’s cemetery.