Section

Setting out the fifteen impermissible cases among the thirty-six cases involving repurchase for cash or with payment deferred until the original due date, and explaining the reasons for their impermissibility.

(The first) is to buy back an equivalent quantity of food, after the buyer has taken it away, for a lower price paid in cash. For example, he sells him ten ardabs of food for ten dirhams payable in one month, then, after the buyer has taken the food away, buys ten ardabs from him for five dirhams in cash. This is impermissible because the original seller, who is the second buyer, pays the original buyer five dirhams in cash and receives ten dirhams from him when payment falls due. He had already given him ten ardabs, which the buyer took away and benefited from before returning an equivalent quantity. It is thus as though he had advanced him five dirhams for ten ardabs to be delivered later and, in connection with this, lent him ten ardabs. This involves lending dirhams in return for a greater sum payable later, and exchanging dirhams and food for a greater sum of dirhams payable later, together with food. This is neither lawful nor permissible. The two parties are therefore suspected of having intended this outcome and of having contrived to make it permissible through the two outwardly valid sales.

(The second) is the same case, except that he offsets the five dirhams against the ten rather than paying them to him in cash. This too is impermissible, because their dealings ultimately amount to his lending him ten ardabs, which the borrower benefits from before returning an equivalent quantity, on condition that the lender give him five dirhams when payment falls due as compensation for benefiting from the loan. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ “forbade a loan that brings a benefit.” This also resembles the usury of the pre-Islamic period prohibited by the Quran: “Either settle the debt or increase the amount owed.” The two parties are therefore suspected of intending this outcome and of contriving to make it permissible through the two outwardly valid sales.

(The third) is the same case, except that the buyer has not taken the food away, and the seller takes back the very same food from him for five dirhams in cash. This too is impermissible, because their dealings ultimately amount to the second buyer paying the original buyer five dirhams in return for ten dirhams payable later. The very same food returns to him and thus has no effective role in the transaction.

(The fourth) is to buy back a greater quantity of food, after the buyer has taken it away, for the same price paid in cash. For example, he sells him ten ardabs for ten dirhams payable later. The buyer takes the food away, and the seller then buys twenty ardabs from him for ten dirhams in cash. This is impermissible and involves an increase in repayment of a loan