Fath al-Rabbani

Benefits: … Bay‘ ‘inah is when the seller sells an item on credit to the buyer and hands it over to him, then buys back the same item from him for a lower cash price. For example, Owais sold a bag to Zeeshan for five hundred rupees on credit, then bought back the same bag from him for four hundred rupees in cash. The background of this transaction is that Zeeshan needed some money, which he could not take directly as cash from Owais, and Owais was not willing to give it without interest, but he also could not take interest directly, so he used the invalid trick of “bay‘ ‘inah” and thus pocketed five hundred in exchange for four hundred. It should be kept in mind that the imposition of humiliation is not only due to agriculture, for in other ahadith Muslims have been encouraged to engage in agriculture and it has been declared the best means of livelihood. The meaning of this hadith is that the person who becomes solely devoted to agriculture and, due to it, becomes worldly and neglects great acts of worship such as jihad, then he will become humiliated.