Abū Yaʿlā, al-Sharīf Abū Jaʿfar, Abū al-Khattāb, Ibn ʿAqīl and others—they did not permit this.

Mālik cited as evidence the report he related in his Muwattaʾ from Yūnus ibn Yūsuf, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab: ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb passed by Hātib ibn Abī Baltaʿah while he was selling raisins in the market. ʿUmar told him, “Either raise your price or withdraw from our market.”

Al-Shāfiʿī and those who agreed with him responded with the report he related, saying:

“Al-Darāwardī narrated to us from Dāwūd ibn Sālih al-Tammār, from al-Qāsim ibn Muhammad, from ʿUmar, that he passed by Hātib in the market at the prayer ground. Before him were two sacks containing raisins. He asked him their price, and Hātib quoted two mudds per dirham. ʿUmar told him, ‘I have been told of a caravan approaching from al-Tāʾif carrying raisins, and they will take your price as their benchmark. Either raise your price or take your raisins home and sell them however you wish.’

“When ʿUmar returned, he reconsidered what he had done. He then visited Hātib at his home and said, ‘What I told you was neither a binding command nor a judgment. I merely intended to benefit the people of the town. Sell wherever you wish and however you wish.’”

Al-Shāfiʿī said: “The import of this report does not contradict what Mālik related. Rather, he related only part of the report—or the person who transmitted it from him did so—whereas this version gives the report from beginning to end. This is the view I adopt, for people have authority over their property. No one may take it, or any part of it, without the freely given consent of