on the basis of their prior bargaining; he merely reduces the price to the amount they had negotiated. The sale they concluded thus becomes a device for making lawful the usury they intended. To explain: a man approaches a dealer in ‘īna transactions and says, “Lend me gold in return for a greater amount payable at a specified term.” The dealer replies, “I will lend you one dirham in return for two payable at a specified term.” The man says, “I will give you only one and a quarter dirhams for each dirham.” They bargain and agree that the dealer will make a profit of half a dirham on each dirham. The dealer then says, “This is not lawful. However, I have a commodity worth one hundred dirhams, which I will sell you for one hundred and fifty, payable in a month. You can then sell it for one hundred and obtain what you want.” The man agrees, takes the commodity from him, and sells it for eighty. He then returns to the dealer and says, “I have suffered a substantial loss on the commodity, so deduct from the one hundred and fifty the amount corresponding to the twenty I lost on it.” The dealer deducts thirty, thereby fulfilling the bargain on which they based their sale. Their transaction thus amounts to his having advanced eighty in return for one hundred and twenty. This is why Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, regarded the price reduction in this case as objectionable.

Section

There are twenty-seven cases concerning a man’s repurchase, from his buyer, of a commodity he sold on deferred payment, where the repurchase price is of the same kind as the original price. He may buy it back for cash or with payment deferred to a date earlier than the original due date, at the same price, a lower price, or a higher price: these are three cases. He may buy it back with payment deferred to the same due date, at the same price, a lower price, or a higher price: this brings the total to six cases. He may buy it back with payment deferred beyond that due date, at the same price: this brings the total to nine cases. He may buy it back together with something additional, at the same price, a lower price, or a higher price, for cash, with payment deferred to the original due date, or with payment deferred beyond it: these are another nine cases. He may buy back part of it at the same price, a lower price, or a higher price, for cash, with payment deferred to the original due date, or with payment deferred beyond it: these are another nine cases, completing the twenty-seven cases we mentioned.

As for repurchase with payment deferred to the original due date, it is permissible in every case, whether he buys back the whole commodity, part of it, or the commodity together with something additional, at the same price, a lower price, or a higher price. This is because the law requires the mutual debts to be offset when their due dates coincide, even if the parties have not stipulated this, so suspicion is thereby removed in all