It is narrated by Rafa’h (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said: “Traders will be raised on the Day of Resurrection as wicked people, except those who adopted the practice of righteousness, goodness and truth.”
(Tirmidhi)
In business and trade people generally display purely materialistic outlook, so much so that even the persons respected in society as ‘religious people’ do not deal justly and honestly as required by the religion of Islam. They hardly care for what is permissible and what not. Nor do they worry about honesty and truth. They are concerned with only earning money by all means, even at the cost of moral and religious moorings. That is why the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) has warned traders that if they do not adopt the policy of honest-dealing and good moral conduct, they will have to face the fate of wicked people on the Day of Judgement.
In another hadīth narrated by Ma’mar bin Abdullah on the authority of Imam Muslim, the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said that the person who indulges in hoarding is a sinner. To hoard food grains and other commodities of daily necessity with a view to selling them at a higher price, when their scarcity in market is causing great hardship to people, is to take undue advantage of people’s difficulties. Islam considers this kind of mentality wrong and criminal, because this method is contrary to human sympathy, a means of adding to the people’s difficulties and of course selfish. In this saying, the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) has very clearly declared the hoarders as sinners.