Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Fifth Fascicle

one has property to be sold, one will be sinful for not selling it. If
one pays one’s debt by giving money with a low value or useless
property, one will have committed a sin if the creditor accepts it
unwillingly. One will not be absolved from sinfulness unless one
somehow pleases the creditor so that the creditor will no longer
feel hurt. This is one of the grave sins, although it does not even
occur to many a person that it may be a sin.
5– Iqâla should be preferred, i.e. the sale should be recalled, if
the buyer repents (for having made the purchase. [Iqâla is
performed by one of the parties’ saying: “I have withdrawn from
the agreement,” and the other party’s replying, “I have accepted
your withdrawal,” or, “So have I.” If an increase or decrease in the
themen is stipulated as a condition in the iqâla, the condition will
be bâtil (null and void). That is, the condition stipulated will not
have to be fulfilled. The themen’s having perished is not a
hindrance to the iqâla. If the mebî’ perishes, however, the iqâla
will be cancelled. In sales termed fâsid and makrûh, as well as
when demanded by the buyer who has been cheated in a scale
termed ghaben-i-fâhish, iqâla is wâjib. In a sale termed sahîh, iqâla
is mustahab for one party when the other party demands it.] For,
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Allâhu ta’âlâ will
pardon the sins of a person who cancels the sale (he has made) and
takes (the property he has sold) back [because the purchaser has
repented].” It is not wâjib to recall a sale accomplished. Yet it is an
act of ihsân, which in turn brings plenty of thawâb.
6– The poor should be sold goods on credit, and the intention
should be ‘not to demand a payment from people who do not have
money.’ In case the debtor is dead, the debt should be made halâl,
(i.e. it should be forgiven.) Some of our superiors had two different
books kept in their shops. One of the books contained anonymous
identities, all of them belonging to poor debtors. Some of the debts
recorded did not even indicate any names in the debtors’ list. That
was intended to guarantee the debtors against being demanded for
payment in case the creditor, (i.e. the blessed shopkeeper himself,)
should be dead. For all that, tradesmen of that sort would not be
categorized as the first class. The first class tradesmen would not
even keep a book for poor customers. They would accept
whatsoever a poor person brought to them, and would not demand
anything from those who failed to pay anything. Such was the kind
of trade carried on by great Islamic personages. Accepting a
smallest coin of doubtful origin would repel a person’s name from
the file of manly piety.
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