Chapter on Murābaḥa Sales
A sale is lawful whether concluded by ordinary bargaining (musāwama) or by murābaḥa. In a murābaḥa transaction it is permissible to stipulate a known profit, provided that the original cost price has been ascertained and communicated to the buyer. If the commodity has undergone any alteration, it may not be sold on murābaḥa until that alteration is disclosed; likewise, if it has suffered any defect, the defect must first be made known. The same applies to an item whose market has shifted, or to goods purchased with a currency other than the one currently in circulation: none of these may be sold on murābaḥa until the facts are clearly stated.
Whoever bought a commodity in exchange for another commodity may not resell it on murābaḥa until he informs the buyer of that circumstance. If he does so, the sale is valid, and the buyer becomes liable to furnish a commodity of the same kind and description together with whatever profit the two parties agreed upon. Jurists other than Mālik do not allow such a sale, reasoning that it involves selling for the like of the commodity without the security that characterises a salam contract, and thus resembles selling what one does not yet possess; this is also the position of Ashhab.
There is no objection to selling, by way of murābaḥa and without further disclosure, something that one had earlier purchased from one’s father, son, or slave, provided that the original purchase involved no undue favouritism.
If the seller lies in a murābaḥa sale, and it is later established that his claim concerning the purchase price was false, the buyer is given a choice: he may, if he wishes, keep the item for the full stated price, or he may return it and annul the contract. Should the commodity be lost or disposed of and the falsehood then come to light, the buyer is entitled to a reduction equal to the amount of the deception and its corresponding share of the profit—unless the current value of the commodity equals or exceeds the stated cost price, in which case no deduction is made, for the seller is liable only for the lesser of the two figures, cost or value. The same ruling applies to