Excellence of Using Measuring and Weighing Tools

“This is concerning my question before abu ‘ Abd Allah (a.s.), about the case of our buying food from ships. We then measure and find extra amount. He (the Imam) said, ‘Perhaps you find it to be less also.’ I replied, ‘Yes, that also happens.’ He (the Imam) then asked, ‘Do they give you the deficit?’ I replied, ‘No, they do not give the deficit. He (the Imam) said, ‘It is not harmful.’”

“This is concerning my question before abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), about the extra in measurement and weighing. He (the Imam) said, ‘If it is not excessive, it is not harmful.’”

“I once said to abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), that I may pass by a man and he speaks to me about food and says, ‘You have found the kind of foodstuff that you need.’ I then ask him to show me and I will give such and such amount of profit for each kur, but when he shows it to me, I look at it and if I need I take it, if not I leave it. He (the Imam) said, ‘It is bargaining and it is not harmful.’ I then said that I then ask him to keep aside for me fifty kur or less or more according to his measurement then it comes extra or less and mostly it is extra. To whom the extra belongs? He (the Imam) said, ‘It belongs to you.’ He (the Imam) then said, ‘I once sent Mu‘attib or Salam who bought food for us and it came extra for two dinars and our family used it by the measurement that we knew.’ I then asked, ‘Did you find out who the seller was?’ He (the Imam) replied, ‘Yes, and we returned the extra to him.’ I then said, ‘May Allah be kind to you. In my case your fatwa is that the extra belongs to me and yourself return it to the seller because you knew that it belongs to him.’ He (the Imam) said, ‘Yes; it is a mistake that people make because what we bought was for eight or nine dirham.’ He (the Imam) then said, ‘In our case we, however, measured it again.’”

“Once I was sitting in the presence of abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), when Mu’ammar al-Zayyat said, ‘We buy oil in Ziqaq (a certain container), they compensate it for deficit because of Ziqaq. He (the Imam) said, ‘If it comes extra as well as in deficit, it is not harmful but if it comes extra and no deficit, then you must not go close to it.’”