What is the ruling on the deposit in buying and selling?
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Al-Halabi : He saysThe questioner : What is the ruling in the Shari'ah regarding the deposit, which is a specific amount paid to a merchant to reserve a specific item? If the payer fails to meet the agreed-upon time, is it permissible to take this amount due to his breach of the agreement, given that his breach may have caused a loss?
The Shaykh : The original ruling regarding the deposit is that it is not lawful, and it is not permissible for the merchant to take it, nor to return it to the one who paid it to him, except in one case to which he referred.The questioner : However, this case is not constant. One may give the deposit at this hour and then back out after a few minutes, having already advanced the deposit. In this case, the merchant has suffered no loss whatsoever, so it is not permissible for him to take even a single cent or qirsh from it. But in some scenarios, which are possible, the merchant may have agreed with the buyer who paid the deposit on the goods and then left, only for someone else to come to the merchant wanting to buy those goods. The merchant did not sell them because he was bound to the first buyer, the one who paid the deposit. Then this man returns after days or hours, depending on the situation, to say, "I apologize, release me from the sale, and return the deposit." In this case, if the merchant has suffered some loss, meaning that the item he sold at the first price can no longer be sold at the same price, he may deduct from this deposit the amount by which he is harmed when he sells the goods to another person. However, merely being a deposit does not make it lawful for him to take it, as that falls under the category of consuming people's wealth unjustly. In this matter, one must first look at the presence or absence of loss; in the first case, it is permissible, and secondly, the estimation of the loss. It is not permissible to take the entire amount, but only the amount of the loss he suffered, based on his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying in the well-known hadith:Sunan Ibn Majah 2340Da'if (Darussalam) Yes.
The Shaykh : The original ruling regarding the deposit is that it is not lawful, and it is not permissible for the merchant to take it, nor to return it to the one who paid it to him, except in one case to which he referred.The questioner : However, this case is not constant. One may give the deposit at this hour and then back out after a few minutes, having already advanced the deposit. In this case, the merchant has suffered no loss whatsoever, so it is not permissible for him to take even a single cent or qirsh from it. But in some scenarios, which are possible, the merchant may have agreed with the buyer who paid the deposit on the goods and then left, only for someone else to come to the merchant wanting to buy those goods. The merchant did not sell them because he was bound to the first buyer, the one who paid the deposit. Then this man returns after days or hours, depending on the situation, to say, "I apologize, release me from the sale, and return the deposit." In this case, if the merchant has suffered some loss, meaning that the item he sold at the first price can no longer be sold at the same price, he may deduct from this deposit the amount by which he is harmed when he sells the goods to another person. However, merely being a deposit does not make it lawful for him to take it, as that falls under the category of consuming people's wealth unjustly. In this matter, one must first look at the presence or absence of loss; in the first case, it is permissible, and secondly, the estimation of the loss. It is not permissible to take the entire amount, but only the amount of the loss he suffered, based on his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying in the well-known hadith:
It was narrated from 'Ubadah bin Samit that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) ruled: “There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm.”
لا ضرر ولا ضرار
Source
www.al-albany.com
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