What is the ruling on buying a commodity and storing it, then selling it when its price rises?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner, Ramadan Muhammad, says: What is the ruling on a person who buys a harvest of grains at harvest time for a low price, and then, after several months, the price of this harvest begins to rise, so he sells it at a higher price than what he paid for it? Is this considered the forbidden hoarding, or is it permissible trade? Please inform us of this.
Answer:
If this food is not available except with him, and he takes all the grains of the country, or buys all the grains brought into the country and collects them in order to sell them to the people at a high price, then this is the cursed hoarding. Whoever does it has committed a great sin, because he restricts the people’s sustenance and harms them. However, if this harvest is available with other people and is easily accessible, there is no harm in a person buying a quantity of grains or dates, storing them, and selling them at another time, waiting for the price to rise, provided that this does not result in restricting the people’s access or collecting everything in the country or everything brought into the country. Yes.
The questioner, Ramadan Muhammad, says: What is the ruling on a person who buys a harvest of grains at harvest time for a low price, and then, after several months, the price of this harvest begins to rise, so he sells it at a higher price than what he paid for it? Is this considered the forbidden hoarding, or is it permissible trade? Please inform us of this.
Answer:
If this food is not available except with him, and he takes all the grains of the country, or buys all the grains brought into the country and collects them in order to sell them to the people at a high price, then this is the cursed hoarding. Whoever does it has committed a great sin, because he restricts the people’s sustenance and harms them. However, if this harvest is available with other people and is easily accessible, there is no harm in a person buying a quantity of grains or dates, storing them, and selling them at another time, waiting for the price to rise, provided that this does not result in restricting the people’s access or collecting everything in the country or everything brought into the country. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم شراء السلعة وادخارها ثم بيعها حين يرتفع سعرها؟ الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.