was what you sold, and how wretched was what you bought! Tell Zayd that he has nullified his striving alongside the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, unless he repents.”

She said, “Mother of the Believers, what if I recover only my principal?”

‘Ā’ishah replied:

“Whoever receives an admonition from his Lord and desists may keep what is past, and his case rests with Allah. But whoever returns—those are the inhabitants of the Fire; they will abide therein forever.”

It is also reported that Anas ibn Mālik was asked about a similar transaction. He said, “This is what Allah has forbidden.”

As for a case in which the goods do not return to the seller at all, but the buyer instead sells them elsewhere to his neighbor, this is called “tawarruq.” There is disagreement over whether it is disliked. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz disliked it, as did Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal—may Allah be pleased with him—according to one of the two reports from him. ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz said, “Tawarruq is the tethering point of usury”—that is, the root of usury. This view is stronger.

He was asked:

A man asked someone for one thousand dirhams for a year in return for twelve hundred dirhams. He then sold him a horse or some cloth for one thousand dirhams and bought it from him for twelve hundred dirhams, payable at a specified time. Is that permissible?

He replied:

That is not lawful for him. Rather, it is usury according to the unanimous agreement of the Companions and the majority of