Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

“If a person preserves victuals for forty days, his heart will become
dark.” When he was informed about a profiteer, he ordered and
had the things that he had hoarded burned. There was an Islamic
scholar who was also a tradesman at the same time. He sent his
deputy with victuals from his hometown, Vâsit, to Basra,
instructing him to sell them there. The prices were lower at Basra.
So his wakîl kept the victuals for a week and thereafter sold them
at higher prices, writing a message with the good news to his
principal. The blessed scholar replied as follows: “It would have
been more to our liking to earn much thawâb by being content
with little profit. You should not have preferred that high profit at
the sacrifice of our faith (Islam). You have committed an
extremely grave felony. To get yourself forgiven for that, dispense
all the profit, and the capital as well, as alms, right away!”
Profiteering has been made harâm because it is something harmful
to Muslims. For, victuals are vital for human and animal life. When
they are sold, it is mubâh for everybody to buy them. When one
person buys and stores them, others cannot buy them. It is, in a
way, like storing the water coming out of a fountain and leaving
other people thirsty. It is sinful to buy victuals with this intention.
Imâm a’zam Abû Hanîfa ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated: “A villager
may sell the victuals he obtains from his land whenever he likes. It
is not wâjib for him to sell them as soon as he reaps them.
However, he earns plenty of thawâb if he sells them immediately.
It will be a malicious intention if he considers selling them after the
prices rise. Ihtikâr is not harâm when medicine or goods other than
victuals or things that are needed by everybody are involved. It is
gravely harâm with bread and the like, and slightly harâm with
things like meat and fat.” According to the Imâmeyn, (i.e. Imâm
Abû Yûsuf and Imâm Muhammad,) all these things fall within the
category of ihtikâr (profiteering). Ihtikâr with anything that
people need is harâm. When government officials are informed
about a profiteer, they should order him to retain the amount that
will suffice for his household and sell the remainder to the people.
[Imâm a’zam ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated that it would not be
ihtikâr to store medicine in order to sell it when the prices go up.
The case as this is with most types of medicine, since some special
types of medicine, such as quinine used to treat malaria, insulin
used for diabetic treatment, and vaccinations and serums applied
to prevent certain bacteria and infections, are, like bread used
against hunger, of definite preventive and curative effect, ihtikâr
[black-marketeering] by storing these strongly effective types of
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