Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 1339 — Selling by mutual consent

Ishaq and Abd bin Humayd narrated through Muhammad bin Ubayd and al-Mukhtar bin Qani' al-Tammar from Abu Matar, who said: I came out of the mosque and suddenly heard a man calling out behind me: "Raise your lower garment, for that is more God-fearing before your Lord and keeps your clothing cleaner; and trim the hair of your head (too), if you are a Muslim!" I walked behind him. He was wearing a lower garment and had a sheet wrapped over him, and he had a whip in his hand. I asked: Who is this? I was told: This is the Commander of the Faithful, Ali (may Allah be pleased with him). Then he mentioned the whole hadith, in which there is also this: Then he came to a cloth seller and said: "O Shaykh! Give me a good deal on a shirt for three dirhams!" When the shopkeeper recognised him, he bought nothing from him. Then he came to another shopkeeper, who also recognised him, and he bought nothing from him either. Then he came to a young boy and bought a shirt from him for three dirhams and put it on; it reached from his wrists to his ankles. Then, when the actual owner of the cloth (the father) came, he was told: Your son has sold a shirt to the Commander of the Faithful for three dirhams. He said (to his son): Why did you not take only two dirhams from him? Then he took one dirham and came to Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) while he was sitting with the Muslims, and said: Please keep this dirham! He asked: "What is the story behind it?" He said: The price of this shirt was two dirhams, that is, my son sold it to you for three dirhams. So he (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "He sold to me with my consent and took a price with his own consent." Abu Ya'la also narrated it through Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Ammar, al-Mu'afa bin Imran and Mukhtar al-Tammar. The hadith of Tariq bin Abdullah al-Muharibi, which indicates the validity of a mu'atah sale (a sale by simple exchange without spoken offer and acceptance), will come shortly, if Allah Almighty wills, in the chapter on measuring for the one who takes his full due and the validity of mu'atah.