he commits injustice in two ways: first, by preventing others from selling those goods, which is impermissible; and second, by selling them to people at whatever price he chooses, thereby making them expensive.

Such people fall into two categories. The first includes someone who rents a shop from a muqtiʿ or someone else for more than its rental value, on condition that he alone may sell in that location; or someone who pays a stipulated sum to a muqtiʿ or someone else without renting a shop or anything else. Both are wrongdoers. The additional rent paid for the shop in return for preventing another person from selling puts the tenant in the same position as the holder of an exclusive concession.

The second category consists of those who have no concession payment to make but undertake to sell to the public, such as millers, bakers and others who pay no levy but are required to sell a specified quantity each day, while others are prevented from selling. For this reason, prices may be fixed for these people, even if price-fixing is not permissible in general. They have been required to trade in this class of goods, while others have been barred from doing so. Allowing them to sell at whatever prices they wished would therefore wrong the poor.

This differs from a situation in which everyone is free to engage in such trade. In that case, the applicable precedent is the report in the Sunan collections from Anas, who said:

“Prices rose during the lifetime of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. The people said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, fix prices for us.’ He replied, ‘Allah is the One who sets prices, withholds, gives abundantly and provides sustenance. I indeed hope to meet Allah with no one seeking redress from me for an injustice concerning property.’”