unless a public harm is involved.

Accordingly, when the case of a muḥtakir (hoarder) is brought before the judge, he orders him to sell whatever is left over after providing for himself and his family, at the prevailing market rate, and forbids him to hoard. If the trader is brought before him a second time, the judge imprisons him and imposes a discretionary punishment as he sees fit, either to deter him or to remove the harm from the people.

If the owners of foodstuffs transgress and demand prices that exceed the true value by a wide margin, and the judge cannot protect the Muslims’ rights except by fixing prices, then he may do so—after consulting people of sound judgment and insight. Should anyone exceed the set rate afterwards, the judge compels him to comply. This ruling is explicit in the view of Abū Ḥanīfah, who does not normally permit placing a free man under interdiction, and it is likewise the view of his two students, Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad, except that they allow interdiction when it is directed at a specific group.

If any of those sellers transact at the price set by the ruler, the sale is valid, because they are not considered to be acting under duress. As for whether the judge may sell the hoarder’s food without his consent, one opinion says the matter follows the well-known disagreement about selling the debtor’s property; another opinion holds that here the judge sells it by unanimous agreement, for Abū Ḥanīfah allows interdiction in order to ward off public harm.

When prices rose in the Prophet’s time and the people asked him to fix them, he refused. It is not reported that anyone who possessed food withheld it from sale; rather, those who sold food were mostly caravans that offered their goods as soon as they entered the market. Nevertheless, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The townsman must not sell on behalf of the desert-dweller,” 1 forbidding him to serve as his broker, and he said, “Leave the people alone; Allah provides for some of them through others.” 2

This is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ through several chains. He therefore forbade the resident who knows the market price to act as agent for the out-of-town supplier, because if he becomes his agent, aware as he is of the people’s need for the goods, he will raise the price for the buyer. The Prophet thus prohibited him from acting as agent—even though agency in itself is permissible—because it inflates prices for the public.

The Prophet ﷺ also forbade intercepting caravans bringing goods to market 3, and this too is soundly transmitted through multiple chains. He granted the seller, once he reaches the marketplace, the right of option. For this reason most jurists hold that