Buying and Selling Goods

“This is concerning my question before abu ‘ Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who buys clothes without condition; then dislikes them and returns to the seller who does not accept the return without a certain amount of penalty. He (the Imam) said, ‘He cannot charge any penalty but if he did it because of ignorance and then sold it to someone for more, he must return the extra to the first owner.”

“About the case of a man who says to another man, ‘Sell my cloth for ten dirham, if you sold for more, then the extra is for you.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It is not harmful.’”

“About the case of a man who carries goods for the people of a market who set a price on the goods and say, ‘If you sold for more, the extra is for you’, abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘It is not harmful but he cannot sell it for them on the basis of profit sharing.’”

“Abu Ja’far (a.s.), has said, ‘Brokerage fee is not unlawful; he only buys for people every now and then for a known amount. He in fact works on hire.’”

“This is concerning my question before abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a broker who buys for a fee. Notes are given to him with the condition that he brings the merchandise and the buyer accepts whatever he likes and leaves the rest. He then brings the goods and says, ‘Take what you like and leave what you dislike.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘It is lawful.’”

“This is concerning my question before abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of a man who buys sacks made in Hirat, and in al-Quhiy. A man then buys from him ten cloths with the condition that he can choose every cloth, for a certain amount of profit, five or less or more. He (the Imam) said, ‘I do not like this sale. Consider if he cannot find in choosing anything other than five cloths and finds the rest the same.’ Imam’s son, ‘Isma’il said, ‘They have set a condition on him to take ten pieces’ and he repeated it several times. He (the Imam) said, ‘He has set up a condition to take the best. Consider if there is nothing more than five cloths and he finds the rest the same.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘I do not like this deal.’ He (the Imam) disliked it because of one party’s suffering loss.’”

“Abu ‘ Abd Allah (a.s.), has said, ‘It is undesirable to buy something with dinar which is other than (a particular) dirham because he does not know the value of dinar in relation to the dirham.’”