The ruling on promising to buy something
Promising to buy something does not mean actually buying it; it is only a promise. When a person wants to buy something and tells his brother to buy it and sell it to him, if the item is purchased and taken into possession, then selling it to the person who wants to buy it is not objectionable. This is because the authentic hadith states that Hazrat Hakim bin Hizam said: O Messenger of Allah, if a person comes to me to buy something and I do not have that item, can I make a deal with him and then go and buy it? The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
“Do not sell what you do not have.”
This is evidence that if he becomes the owner of it and the item comes into his possession, then there is no harm in selling it to his brother.
In this sense, there is also an authentic hadith narrated from Hazrat Abdullah bin Amr bin As (may Allah be pleased with him) in which the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:
“Sale on credit is not permissible, nor is the sale of what you do not have.”
From the hadith of Hazrat Zaid bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him), it is established that the Prophet (peace be upon him) forbade selling goods at the place where they are purchased until the merchant takes them to his home.
From the hadiths mentioned, it is understood that when a person finds goods such as a vehicle, grain, clothes, utensils, etc., with Zaid or Amr, and the merchant has completed all the stages of purchasing and acquiring ownership of these items, then there is no harm in buying these items from him and taking possession. However, the second buyer cannot sell them until he moves them from the seller’s shop to another place, such as his home or the market. After that, he may sell them as he wishes, so that the mentioned hadiths are observed, and also the hadith in Sahih Bukhari narrated from Hazrat Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: We used to be punished in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) for selling grain at the same place where it was bought until we moved it to our homes.
In other words: until we moved it from the upper market to the lower market and from the lower market to the upper market.
