prevent people from being harmed by this adulteration, either by removing it or by selling the adulterated goods to someone who knows their condition and will not pass them off fraudulently to others.

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Habīb said:

“I said to Mutarrif and Ibn al-Mājishūn, ‘Since we have been forbidden to give adulterated goods in charity on the basis of Ashhab’s report, what do you both consider the proper course regarding someone who adulterates goods or gives short weight?’

“They replied, ‘He is to be punished by beating, imprisonment, and expulsion from the marketplace. Large quantities of bread or milk, or adulterated musk or saffron, are neither to be distributed nor plundered.’”

‘Abd al-Malik ibn Habīb said:

“The ruler should not return the goods to him. Rather, someone he trusts not to use them fraudulently should be instructed to sell them on his behalf, and, when there is a large quantity of bread, to break it up and hand it over to its owner. The honey, clarified butter, and milk that he adulterates should be sold on his behalf to someone who will consume them, with their adulteration disclosed to the buyer. This is the procedure to follow with adulterated merchandise.”

He said:

“This is the explanation given by those of Mālik’s companions and others whom I asked to clarify the matter.”

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As for alteration, an example is what Abū Dāwūd narrated from ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar concerning the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“He forbade breaking the Muslims’ coinage that was current among them, unless there was a fault in it.”

Thus, if the dirhams or dinars in circulation have a fault, they are to be broken. Another example is altering three-dimensional and two-dimensional images when they are not placed underfoot, as in the report narrated by Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: