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The rulings on cost-plus sales (murābaha) thus cover seven cases: (the first) misrepresentation of the price alone; (the second) concealment of a defect alone; (the third) fraud and deception alone; (the fourth) misrepresentation of the price combined with concealment of a defect; (the fifth) misrepresentation of the price combined with fraud and deception; (the sixth) fraud and deception combined with concealment of a defect; and (the seventh) all three together: misrepresentation of the price, fraud and deception, and concealment of a defect. Study these cases and understand how their rulings differ, according to the explanations and divisions we have given. They are exhaustively and correctly treated in accordance with Ibn al-Qāsim’s principles and position. I have not seen any earlier scholar present them in so concise a form.

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Sahnūn applies the ruling on misrepresentation of the price to certain cases of fraud and deception, treating the assessed value as the true purchase price. He means the value on the day of resale in a case where someone buys goods, their market price falls, and he then resells them on a cost-plus basis without disclosing this. He means—and Allah knows best—the value on the day of purchase in a case where someone buys goods, keeps them for a long time while their market price rises, and then resells them without disclosing this. It follows from his position that, where someone buys goods on deferred payment and then resells them on a cost-plus basis without disclosing this, the relevant assessed value would be their value on the day of resale if their market price had fallen between purchase and resale, and their value on the day of purchase if their market price had risen between purchase and resale.

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If the seller claims to have made an error in a cost-plus sale and produces plausible supporting evidence—such as a marked price higher than the price at which he sold, testimony he obtains from people who had divided the goods with him, or something similar—his claim is accepted, and he has a right of recourse. This, then, is a summary of the rulings on cost-plus sales. They will be explained in detail in their respective places in this book, if Allah Most High wills.