The Contract of Sale 1. BACKGROUND:
Human being is a unit of society and they are social by nature. In their needs they are dependent on each other, the reason is that their wants are multiple and cannot be fulfilled by themselves individually. Allah SWT has blessed individuals with different kind of abilities hence cooperation (ta’awun) is required among individuals so that they can help out each other and can live their lives conveniently. If an individual is interested in war and politics, while the other is interested in agriculture and manufacturing then how is the one interested in war and politics will be able to fulfill his needs? Hence a system of sale and purchase came into existence.
Allah SWT has guided us about every aspect of life in the Holy Quran, so is about the sales and trade. The guidance is extremely necessary for the reason that validity or invalidity of an act is Islam is subjected to an act of being lawful or unlawful according to injunctions of Islam as available in Quran and Sunnah.
In the Holy Quran, Allah SWT says:
“And do not eat up your property among yourselves for vanities, nor use it as a bait for the judges, with intent that ye may eat up wrongfully and knowingly a little of people’s property.”