The ruling on selling what a person does not own
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible for a person to sell what he does not own? And if a person sells land that he does not own, what is to be done?
Answer:
If he is an agent for its owner, there is no problem if the owner appointed him as such. But if he sells it without authorization from its owner, this is not valid.Sunan Ibn Majah 2187Hasan (Darussalam) The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Mishkat al-Masabih 2867Sahih (Al-Albani). Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it permissible for a person to sell what he does not own? And if a person sells land that he does not own, what is to be done?
Answer:
If he is an agent for its owner, there is no problem if the owner appointed him as such. But if he sells it without authorization from its owner, this is not valid.
Do not sell what is not with you.
لا تبع ما ليس عندكHe replied, “Do not sell what you do not possess.”
قال لا تبع ما ليس عندك
Source
شرح كتاب المنتقى من أخبار المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم، بداية من باب ارتياد المكان الرخو وما يكره التخلي فيه — islamhouse.com (1:03:21)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.