Islam addresses all aspects of human life. The traditions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) provide us with guidance for fulfilment of the life here and the hereafter. Even pure business transactions undertaken with the motive of earning profit is not outside the ambit of the divine counselling and commandment available to mankind in the forms of commandments of Allah the Exalted as contained in the Holy Qur’ān and the traditions (sunnah) of the blessed Prophet.
A number of guiding principles relating to business transactions may be derived from the Holy Qur’ān and the Prophetic Traditions. We intend to study such traditions (sunnah) of the blessed Prophet and in order to develop their proper understanding it is useful to begin with the basis of business transactions in Islam in brief.
MUTUAL CONSENT (TRAZEE)
Business transactions are undertaken for fulfilment of mutually exclusive benefits. One person provides goods or services for earning income while the other person gets the benefit of those goods or services. Every person should be free to perform his part of the deal in order to get the benefit he seeks. There cannot be any coercion in such an arrangement. Any action by any party in contrivance of this golden principle of a business transaction will render the benefit gained by him in this process as wrongful (batil). The holy Qur’ān has clearly said this in the following verse.
Believers! Do not devour one another’s possessions wrongfully; rather, let there be trading by mutual consent… (The Qur’ān – 4:29)
A number of Prophetic Traditions have described the meaning of mutual consent and Islamic scholars have discussed various issues relating to this commandment in details. Ibn Kaseer in the commentary of the above verse of the Qur’ān has recorded a tradition of the blessed Prophet which defines business as a transaction between two parties on mutual consent. Thus no person should be coerced to part with his possessions including goods, services or money or any other item of wealth. Similarly, all transactions done exploiting any weakness or situational disadvantage of a person are of doubtful credentials. Free will that is the basis of mutual consent is a must. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) expressed this categorically on a number of occasions. Following traditions are noted in this regard.
Every person having any possession is free to use it the way he wills. (Kanzul Amaal, tradition number 3483)
Beware! Do not trespass (be oppressor). Other person’s wealth is not lawful for you save with his (the owner’s) consent. (Mishkat, Bab al Ghasb)
EXCEPTION TO THE RULE
A note of caution is necessary at this point. The principle of mutual consent in the case of possessions/wealth has some exceptions. One such exception is where a person may be dispossessed, despite his unwillingness and protest, owing to operations of law. However, such operations of law are mostly outside the scope of business transactions.
Another exception to the rule of mutual consent is the case described in the following tradition of the blessed Prophet.
All the conditions agreed upon by the Muslims are upheld, except a condition which allows what is prohibited (haram) or prohibits what is lawful (halal). (related by Abu Hurairah and recorded by Abu Daud, Ibn Ma’ja, Tirmidhi)
Hence any condition in any transaction which permits haram (prohibited affairs) or prohibits halal (lawful affairs) is void ab-initio. The authority of declaring something as halal or haram vests with the Almighty Allah and all commandments in their respective declarations have already been given in the Qur’ān and the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him). No scope of any fresh legislation in this regard is available. So in all transactions, including deals relating to business and trade, it is incumbent upon the believers not to trespass. They cannot do this even when they consent mutually.