82 chapter two
(2) Pricing: prices should be determined by market forces, demand
and supply. The evidence of this rule is taken from the Sunnah
where the Prophet is reported to have refused fixing prices, say-
ing to the people who asked him to do so, “It is God who gives
abundantly or sparingly, it is He who sets prices and I do not
want to meet Him with someone’s complaint of me in body or
wealth” (Abù-Yùsuf ). This is the general rule which, although
accepted by all Muslim jurists, is conditioned by some. The
Medieval jurist Ibn-Taymìya (1262–1328), for example, advocated
that the Prophet’s saying was based on the conditions of the sta-
bility of the market, but if the market becomes unstable for rea-
sons not related to fair dealing, the state has to step in to fix
prices. (The economic thought of Ibn-Taymìya will be examined
in the following chapters).
(3) Information: the flow of information should be made available
to both buyers and sellers. The Prophet is reported to have con-
demned meeting sellers outside the market place and finalising
deals with them before reaching the market (flaœìœMuslim). This
is to give the seller the opportunity to know the level of prices
in the market place before finalising a deal and the buyer the
chance of buying goods at prices not influenced by the middle
man. Also, when a deal between the seller and the buyer is struck,
other buyers should refrain from offering a higher price to the
seller in order to change the deal (flaœìœMuslim). Before com-
pleting a deal, sellers and buyers are bound to follow the prices
prevailing in the market.
(4) The condemnation of future contracts if the quantity of the object
is not known: this is because the seller is uncertain of his ability
to honour the contract. It is the ambiguity surrounding the quan-
tity to be delivered that makes a future contract invalid. On the
other hand, if the quantity is known, or could be agreed upon,
future contracts may be allowed. For example, if a seller and a
buyer completed a deal that the former would sell to the latter
the total production of an activity during a future period at a
certain time in the future (the crops of a field, the fish caught in
a span of time, the output of a dive, the offspring of an animal
or animals etc.) the deal is illegitimate (Al-Gizìrì, 1972). This is
because the quantity of production that is subject to the contract
is not known for certain. On the other hand if the subject of the
contract was a determined quantity of future production (certain