Selling by number: Does this fall under the forbidden price-fixing?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Selling by number ... .
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : Selling by number ... .
The Shaykh : But.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : There is nothing wrong with it, if the intention is to curb people's greed.
The questioner : ... indicates the prohibition, for it is a prohibition in the hadithSunan Ibn Majah 2200Sahih (Darussalam) .
The Shaykh : Yes, because the price rose due to the scarcity of what is available, not because of people's hoarding. So price-fixing is divided into two categories: what is forbidden is that whose cause is the scarcity of the available goods or the increase in consumers, for example. But it is not permissible for us to fix prices, because this is from Allah. However, if the cause is people's hoarding, if the pharmacists gathered and said, "Come, we will buy this medicine from abroad for one riyal, and people need it, so we will sell it for five riyals," should they be struck on their hands, or should they be left to play?
The questioner : They should be struck on their hands.
The Shaykh : That is it.
The questioner : And what occurred during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ... .
The Shaykh : No, what occurred was not of this kind; what occurred was due to the scarcity of the harvest. Yes?
The Shaykh : What?
The questioner : Selling by number ... .
The Shaykh : But.
The questioner : ... .
The Shaykh : There is nothing wrong with it, if the intention is to curb people's greed.
The questioner : ... indicates the prohibition, for it is a prohibition in the hadith
Indeed Allah is the Musa'ir
إن الله هو المسعرThe Shaykh : Yes, because the price rose due to the scarcity of what is available, not because of people's hoarding. So price-fixing is divided into two categories: what is forbidden is that whose cause is the scarcity of the available goods or the increase in consumers, for example. But it is not permissible for us to fix prices, because this is from Allah. However, if the cause is people's hoarding, if the pharmacists gathered and said, "Come, we will buy this medicine from abroad for one riyal, and people need it, so we will sell it for five riyals," should they be struck on their hands, or should they be left to play?
The questioner : They should be struck on their hands.
The Shaykh : That is it.
The questioner : And what occurred during the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ... .
The Shaykh : No, what occurred was not of this kind; what occurred was due to the scarcity of the harvest. Yes?