706 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them) said: “A man told the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he was repeatedly cheated in sales, so the Prophet said, ‘When you conclude a transaction, say: lā khilābah (no deception).’” Agreed upon. (1)
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• “A man”: This refers to Ḥibbān—spelled with ḥāʾ followed by a doubled bāʾ and ending with nūn—Ḥibbān ibn Munqidh ibn ʿAmr al-Anṣārī al-Khazrajī al-Māzinī, the grandfather of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ḥibbān, the teacher of Imām Mālik. His speech became impaired after a stone struck his head during one of the Prophet’s expeditions, causing a depressed fracture. The injury altered both his tongue and his reasoning, so whenever he bargained he would say, “lā khilābah,” because his weak intellect left him open to fraud. He died during the caliphate of ʿUthmān.
• “lā khilābah”: with khāʾ in the casuative (kasrah), a light lām with fatḥah, then bāʾ with fatḥah, ending with tāʾ. It means “no cheating.” One says: khalabahu – yakhlibuhu khalban wa khilābah (“he deceived him”). A person described as khālib or khillāb is a cheat; al-khalb denotes deception by speech.
The expression employs lā that negates the whole genus (lā nāfiyah li-l-jins) with an omitted predicate; the import is that religion is sincere counsel, therefore there is no cheating in Islam.
Points derived from the ḥadith
- The Sunan relate from Anas that, in the Prophet’s time, there was a man who bought and sold while lacking full discernment. His family came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, place a guardianship over So-and-so, for he buys and sells.” The Prophet summoned him and forbade him to trade, but the man replied, “O Messenger of Allah, I cannot forgo