The Ruling on the Open Buffet and the Reason for the Prohibition
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, this questioner says: I heard that Your Eminence said that the open buffet is forbidden. Is this correct? And what is the reason?
Answer:
This is what I said, and it is not a lie. I was asked about the one who enters the buffet and eats whatever he wants, where the price is fixed at ten or fifty riyals, and he eats as much as he wants without a limit. This is unknown; what he eats is unknown. In buying and selling, it is required that the item being sold be known. So I said that this ignorance is not permissible. If he specifies what he eats and it is said that its price is such-and-such, there is no objection. But if he says, "Eat whatever you want, and you only have to pay five or ten riyals," this is unknown and not permissible. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Honorable Shaykh, this questioner says: I heard that Your Eminence said that the open buffet is forbidden. Is this correct? And what is the reason?
Answer:
This is what I said, and it is not a lie. I was asked about the one who enters the buffet and eats whatever he wants, where the price is fixed at ten or fifty riyals, and he eats as much as he wants without a limit. This is unknown; what he eats is unknown. In buying and selling, it is required that the item being sold be known. So I said that this ignorance is not permissible. If he specifies what he eats and it is said that its price is such-and-such, there is no objection. But if he says, "Eat whatever you want, and you only have to pay five or ten riyals," this is unknown and not permissible. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 43 من 83 / شرح مختصر زاد المعاد / الفتنة / صالح الفوزان / السيرة / كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:12:50)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.