What is the ruling on exchanging goods while they are hidden?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : This is a question about a modern issue. He says: Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings,
The Shaykh : Peace and the mercy of Allah.
The questioner : regarding this question of mine, and to you is my sincere thanks. Is it permissible to exchange goods while they are hidden? He gives as an example a method that has become widespread: one person hides his watch in his hand, then says “it is a Qamit” or “a resistance” [brand names], and the other person understands half of the matter, and then they exchange the watches without either seeing the other’s watch.
The Shaykh : This is not permissible and is not allowed, because this is gharar (excessive uncertainty in a contract). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the sale of gharar, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the sale by throwing a pebble, where a person throws a pebble and it lands on, for example, a specific garment,
and it is sold for such-and-such, or he throws it and whatever distance it reaches, it is sold for such-and-such, because this is unknown. Therefore, the sale mentioned, or the exchange mentioned in the question, is forbidden and not permissible. And whoever engaged in this exchange, each of them must return the other’s watch to him, because he did not own it when it reached him through a valid contract. And a person should praise Allah for well-being, and if he is tired of his watch, he should sell it through a valid sale with clear description and clarification.
The Shaykh : Peace and the mercy of Allah.
The questioner : regarding this question of mine, and to you is my sincere thanks. Is it permissible to exchange goods while they are hidden? He gives as an example a method that has become widespread: one person hides his watch in his hand, then says “it is a Qamit” or “a resistance” [brand names], and the other person understands half of the matter, and then they exchange the watches without either seeing the other’s watch.
The Shaykh : This is not permissible and is not allowed, because this is gharar (excessive uncertainty in a contract). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the sale of gharar, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the sale by throwing a pebble, where a person throws a pebble and it lands on, for example, a specific garment,
and it is sold for such-and-such, or he throws it and whatever distance it reaches, it is sold for such-and-such, because this is unknown. Therefore, the sale mentioned, or the exchange mentioned in the question, is forbidden and not permissible. And whoever engaged in this exchange, each of them must return the other’s watch to him, because he did not own it when it reached him through a valid contract. And a person should praise Allah for well-being, and if he is tired of his watch, he should sell it through a valid sale with clear description and clarification.
Source
لقاء مفتوح ببريدة - 2 — archive.org (28:39)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.