As for the well-known proof cited by the Hanbali school, it is limited to the ḥadith: “and no two stipulations in one sale.”

The view to which the heart finds reassurance—and which the conscience readily accepts—is the narration selected by the two Shaykhs of Islam and preferred by our own teacher, al-Saʿdī, because of the strength of its textual and analogical proofs and the absence of any evidence that contradicts it. Allah alone guides to what is right.

Benefit

The conditions attached to a sale fall into two categories:

1. A benefit connected to the merchandise that the seller reserves for himself, or a benefit belonging to the seller that the buyer stipulates for himself. These are the points of dispute among the scholars, and they have already been discussed in detail.
2. Conditions inherent in the contract—such as the requirement that each party take possession or that the price become due—or conditions that serve the contract’s interest, such as deferring payment, pledging collateral, or designating a guarantor. The same applies to stipulating a desired attribute in the goods, like the slave’s being literate or skilled, or the female slave’s being a virgin or a seamstress, and the like. Concerning these conditions there is no disagreement over their permissibility, whether they are many or few.

Hadith 3

Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade a city-dweller from selling on behalf of a Bedouin, inflating prices for one another, a man’s selling over the sale of his brother, proposing marriage over the proposal of his brother, and a woman’s asking that her co-wife be divorced so that she may overturn what is in her sister’s vessel.” (1)

Points derived from the ḥadith

The issues of the city-dweller acting for the Bedouin, price-inflation, and a man’s selling over his brother’s sale have been discussed in Hadiths 252 and 253, making repetition here unnecessary. Additional benefits are as follows:

1. It is forbidden to propose marriage over the proposal already made by one’s brother unless it is known that the first suitor has been rejected and his request unanswered. Doing otherwise breeds enmity, hatred, and the cutting off of another’s livelihood.

2. It is forbidden for a woman to ask her husband to divorce her co-wife, to stir his heart against her, or to incite discord between them so that evil ensues and he separates from her. This is prohibited because of the grave harms it entails—sowing enmity, bringing about ill will, and depriving the divorced wife of her livelihood, alluded to in the phrase “so that she may overturn what is in her sister’s vessel,” that is, the good she enjoys through marriage, such as maintenance, clothing, and other marital rights. These are noble rulings and lofty manners intended to regulate society’s affairs and keep it away from causes of evil, enmity, and hatred, replacing them with love, affection, harmony, and peace.