264 chapter six
druggists, drapers, weavers, tailors, shoe makers, vets, physicians,
oculists, surgeons, sieve makers, sellers of straw, timber merchants
and sellers of palm-logs, and so on. Even further, in case a topic
was not discussed, Ibn al-Ukhùwwah devoted a final chapter on,
“Details concerning the Œisbahnot elsewhere discussed”.
Ma"alim al-Qùrbah is a manual on Œisbahthat has provided in
detail, practical methods of governing the market and business sec-
tor but without entirely ignoring the theoretical side of the subject.
Ibn al-Ukhùwwah’s book is especially useful to five particular groups
of users:
(1) The Muœtasib, in exercising his duties,
(2) The ruler whether that was the caliph, his prime minister, the
flulňn, or the province governor in explaining the duties expected
from the Muœtasib,
(3) The other forms of authority namely the police, and courts and
judges in distinguishing between the authority and duties of the
Muœtasib and those of their own,
(4) Businesses in knowing what is prohibited and what is permitted
so that potential ambiguity could be removed, and
(5) The public, in being made aware of their rights within the rules
of fair trade.
For the above, Ma"alim al-Qùrbah provided a clear and concise guide
to business deals that may serve as a market and business charter.
It laid down the rules of Sharì"ah regarding the conduct of business,
the amount of information that should be made available to the pub-
lic in business deals, the clarity of rules to all parties concerned, par-
ticularly the customer and the entrepreneur, and the attitude of other
government authorities in relation to market rules. Today, this could
be referred to as the market or business governance.
Should the Muœtasib be strictly concerned with implementing the
rules or should he also be allowed to interpret them and derive sub-
rules from them, is a question that concerned ibn al-Ukhùwwah and
al-Màwardìbefore him. The importance of the question lies in that
whether the Muœtasib be allowed to exercise discretion in jurispru-
dence, ijtihàd, and if he is, would that include rules related to revealed
law, sharia’, rules connected with customary law, 'urf, or both? He
explained that there were different opinions on this matter. Some
believed that al-Muœtasib has the right to give effect to a decision
on the authority of his own ijtihàdin matters of revealed law, sharia’,