rather it is simply that one narrator cited only part of the report, or that the person who transmitted from him did so, whereas this other narrator conveyed both the beginning and the end of the ḥadith—and that is the position I affirm; for people have full authority over their property: no one may take it, or any part of it, without their willing consent, except in those situations the Law obliges them, and this is not one of them.1

I say: According to Mālik’s view, Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī stated that the seller who has undercut the price and is ordered to match it must return to the price on which the majority of people have settled. Thus, if a single trader—or only a few—reduce the price, they are told to conform to the majority price, because the state of the majority is what counts, and on it commercial transactions are based.2

Ibn al-Qāsim also related from Mālik: “People are not to be compelled for a difference of five.” He added: In my opinion this must be assessed in light of the size of the markets, and whether someone who increases the quantity offered—for example, the amount sold for a dirham—should be dealt with in the same manner as one who decreases it. Abū al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Qaṣṣār al-Mālikī said: Our scholars have differed over Mālik’s statement. Concerning the person who lowers the price, the Baghdādīs said he meant someone who sells five for a dirham while the people are selling eight, whereas a group of Egyptians said he meant someone who sells eight while the people are selling five. In my judgment both cases are forbidden, for whoever sells eight while the people sell five disrupts the business of the market folk and may give rise to disorder and disputes, so prohibiting both is in the community’s interest. Abū al-Walīd added that there is no disagreement that this is the ruling for the regular traders in the marketplace.

As for the importer, the book of Muḥammad states that he is not prevented from selling in the market below the going price. Ibn Ḥabīb said: For all goods other than wheat and barley he must sell at the people’s price, otherwise he is expelled. As for an importer of wheat and barley, he may sell however he wishes, although among themselves they are subject to the same market rule: if only some of them lower the price they are left alone, but if the number of under-pricers becomes large, the rest are told, “Either sell as they do or leave the market.” Ibn Ḥabīb added that this applies to everything sold by measure or weight, whether edible or inedible, as opposed to that which is not