Likewise, in the narration of Ḥanbal, he said concerning debased dirhams: “Anything that falls under the designation of adulteration is forbidden to buy with or sell.” In the narration of Muhanna, he said: “If a person brings a dinar to someone able to examine it and buys it on the understanding that it is of poor quality, there is no harm.”
Livestock must also be prevented from being sold after their milk has been withheld and accumulated in their udders, because this has been prohibited and is a form of deception. Among the matters that especially concern the official is preventing short measure and short weight in measuring vessels, scales, and weights. Disciplinary measures for this should be particularly emphatic and stringent.
If he has doubts about the market traders’ scales and measures, he may test and calibrate them. It would be more precautionary and safer if he established a recognizable official stamp for the measures and scales he approved, known among the general public, so that they would conduct their transactions only with those bearing it. If he did this and some people used items other than those bearing his stamp, censure should be directed at them if what they used was deficient in two respects: first, because they violated the official standard by abandoning the stamped one; denouncing this falls under the prerogatives of political authority; and second, because they shortchanged people and gave short measure in their rights; denouncing this falls under the rights established by the Sharia. If what they used instead of the stamped standard was sound and free from shortfall or deficiency, censure would apply only on the grounds of political authority, because of their violation of the official standard.
Aḥmad said, in the narration of Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, concerning the striking of dirhams: “They may be struck only at the mint with the ruler’s permission.”
If people forged the official stamp, the counterfeit item would be like a debased coin struck with the die used for dirhams and dinars. If the forgery were combined with adulteration, censure and discipline would be warranted on two grounds: first, as a matter of political authority, because of the forgery; and second, as a matter of the Sharia, because of the adulteration—which is the graver of the two offenses. If the forgery were free of adulteration, only the authority-based censure would apply.
When a town grew so large that its inhabitants needed measurers, weighers, and coin inspectors, the official should select them and ensure that no one was appointed to these posts except honest and reliable people whom he approved. Their wages should come from the public treasury if it had sufficient funds for them. If it did not, he should set their wages at a fixed amount, so that there would be no demands for increases or reductions, which could become a means of collusion and unfair dealing in measuring or weighing.
If any of those selected for measuring and weighing were found to shortchange people or to show favoritism by giving excess, he should discipline him, remove him from the group of appointees, and bar him from acting as an intermediary among the people. The same applies to the selection of brokers: the honest among them should be retained and the treacherous barred. This is among the matters handled by the officials of the ḥisbah.