710 – ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, and salt for salt—like for like, equal for equal, hand to hand. When these kinds differ, then sell as you wish, provided it is hand to hand.” Reported by Muslim (1).

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
– al-dhahab bil-dhahab (gold for gold): the sale of gold for gold; the same is understood for the remaining items.
– al-burru bil-burr (wheat for wheat): with a ḍamma on the bāʾ and a doubled rāʾ; it refers to the grain of wheat.
– al-milḥ (salt): Chemists define salt as a compound produced when a metal takes the place of hydrogen in an acid. It is used to season and preserve food. Its plural is amlāḥ. Grammatically it is feminine, though it may be treated as masculine.
– mithlan bi-mithl, sawāʾan bi-sawāʾ (like for like, equal for equal): tamāthul (likeness) is broader than mere equality in measure, so the Prophet ﷺ reinforced it with the phrase “equal for equal,” meaning that the two amounts must be identical, with no advantage to either side.
– yadan bi-yad (hand to hand): literally “hand,” the limb from the shoulder to the fingertips, feminine in Arabic. Here it means that each of the two parties takes possession of the counter-value of the ribā-liable commodity in the very session of the contract.

His words “like for like, equal for equal, hand to hand”: each of the words mithl, sawāʾ, and yad is in the accusative as a circumstantial qualifier (ḥāl). The governing element is the prepositional phrase “for” in “gold for gold,” and the subject of the ḥāl is its concealed pronoun; that is, “gold for gold, with both amounts identical and received hand to hand.”