measured or weighed, for anything else cannot be given a fixed price, since the items are not uniform. Abū al-Walīd explained: this applies only when the goods sold by measure or weight are alike; but if they differ, the seller of the superior quality is not ordered to sell it for the price of the inferior.
I say: The second issue over which the scholars differed with regard to price-setting concerns whether a ceiling may be fixed for the market-folk that they must not exceed, provided people are already fulfilling their obligations. The majority of jurists—including Mālik himself in his most reliable position—prohibited this. The same prohibition is reported from Ibn ʿUmar, Sālim, and al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad. Abū al-Walīd also relates that Saʿīd b. al-Musayyib, Rabīʿa b. Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd allowed it, though he does not cite their exact words.
Ashhab transmits from Mālik that the market supervisor may set prices for the butchers: a third of a raṭl for mutton and half a raṭl for camel meat; otherwise they must leave the market. Mālik added: If the supervisor fixes the price in proportion to what he sees the butchers pay, there is no harm in that, yet I fear they will abandon the market.
Those who permit price-setting argue that it serves the public interest by preventing merchants from raising prices excessively, without harming them. They say: People are not forced to sell; they are only barred from selling above the price the ruler sets in accordance with the benefit he sees for both seller and buyer. The ruler does not strip the seller of profit, nor does he allow him a profit that harms the community.
The majority, however, cite the hadith mentioned earlier. Abū Dāwūd and others have also transmitted it through al-ʿAlāʾ b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: “A man came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, fix prices for us.’ He replied, ‘Rather, supplicate to Allah.’ Then another man came and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, fix prices for us!’ He answered, ‘Allah is the One who raises and lowers; I hope to meet Allah while none of you has any claim against me.’” 1
They add: Forcing people to sell what the Law does not oblige them to sell, or preventing them from something the Law permits, is injustice—and injustice is forbidden.
As for how price-setting should be carried out according to those who allow it, Ibn Ḥabīb said: The imam should gather the leading merchants of that market, and bring in others as a safeguard against misrepresentation, then ask them,