270 chapter six
should not be hurried to a bargain before they knew what the mar-
ket conditions were likely to be.
Emanating from the same principle of preventing market imper-
fections, hoarding, particularly hoarding of necessities, should be
checked. Ibn Taymìya went as far as stating that the authorities, the
Muœtasib, are entitled to force the sellers of necessities to sell their
stock for fair value when the goods are urgently needed even if the
sellers were unwilling to sell at that price in preference for a future
higher price when the goods experience further shortage. This view
establishes the need to protect the economy from arbitrary manip-
ulation of the market with a view to protecting the consumer and
producer against economic injustice (Holland, 1983). Ibn Taymìya’s
opinion may seem in contradiction of the free market conditions
advocated in Islamic economics, but what Ibn Taymìya was advo-
cating was the importance of the state intervention when the con-
ditions of the free market fail to function as a result of being distorted
by monopolistic actions. It is noted, however, that the intervention
in market forces by the state is only required when the goods sub-
ject to monopoly are of a vital importance to the community. The
criterion of whether the goods are vitally important to the commu-
nity or otherwise is echoed elsewhere in Ibn Taymìya’s views about
price control as seen below.
Price control
Ibn Taymìya’s views on pricing are an important input into Islamic
market forces. To him the general condition of a free market that
is based on market forces including, in particular, pricing, as estab-
lished by the Prophet, is not without restrictions. The restrictions are
mainly that whether pricing through market forces is leading to injury
to people or otherwise. Price fixation by the authority, therefore,
may be “an impermissible wrong”, or may be “just and permissi-
ble”. Ibn Taymìya proceeded to say, “If it, price fixation, (italics ours)
involves injury to people the sellers and forcing them without justification
to sell at a price not agreeable to them, then it is illegal. But if it
involves just dealing between people, as when they are compelled to
do their duty by exchanging for a fair price, and preventing them
from doing what is unlawful for them in taking more than a fair
consideration, then it is not merely permissible but indeed obligatory”.
Intervention in market forces through price fixation by the state is
therefore mandatory on the state, though it is still conditional. Ibn