Theme: Business Etiquette in Islam

It was narrated that Jabir bin ‘Abdullah( ) said that:

“A townsman should not sell for a Bedouin. Leave people to (engage in trade), and Allah will grant them provision through one another”.

(Source: Sahih Muslim, hadith No. 1522; Jami` at-Tirmidhi, hadith No. 1223; Sunan An-Nasa’i, hadith No. 4495; Sunan Ibn Majah, hadith No. 2176)

Our Shariah gives importance to fairness in business dealings and the free market competition. The meaning of the hadith is that a foreign seller came to a town with the intention to sell all its goods at the current market price. However, a townsman stops him and asks the foreign seller to leave the goods with him, and he will sell the goods as his broker at a higher market price to the public.

This prohibition of a townsman acting as a broker for the foreign seller is one of the factors that enable a market to be competitive and for the price of goods to be determined purely by the law of supply and demand. In modern economics, we find that consumer price tends to be higher in a monopolistic market.

Hence, in this hadith, our Prophet (ﷺ) sets an example that still relevant to this days and age. Even though profits will be lower in competitive markets, the hadith assured us that Allah SWT would grant His provision to us adequately.