scholars, as indicated by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
Ibn ‘Abbās, may Allah be pleased with him, was asked about a man who sold a piece of silk and then bought it back in a transaction involving an extra dirham. He replied, “Dirhams for dirhams, with a piece of silk interposed between them.” Anas ibn Mālik was asked about this and said, “This is among the things Allah and His Messenger have forbidden.” Concerning a similar transaction, ‘Ā’ishah said to the slave woman who had borne Zayd ibn Arqam a child, “How wretched 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.”
Whenever a party’s purpose in a transaction is to exchange dirhams for dirhams with deferred payment—for deeds are judged only by intentions, and each person will have only what he intended—it makes no difference whether the seller is the one granting the deferment or the one receiving it, followed by the recovery of the commodity.
The Sunan collections report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Whoever conducts two sales in one transaction is entitled only to the lower of the two prices; otherwise, it is usury.”
They also report that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“When you engage in buyback sales, follow the tails of cattle, and abandon jihad in the cause of Allah, Allah will inflict humiliation upon you which He will not remove until you return to your religion.”
All of this concerns buyback sales, which constitute two sales in one transaction. He also said, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:
“It is not lawful to combine a loan with a sale, to impose two conditions in a sale, to profit from something for which one has borne no liability, or to sell what one does not possess.”
Al-Tirmidhī said, “An authentic hadith.” Thus, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade a man to sell