Selling an item which one does not own

[Ridwaan Ravat]

QUESTION:*

If I don't have stock in my business can I sell the goods? Example is that a client comes and purchases a load of bricks and he wants it delivered to his house. He pays us for the bricks and delivery and though we don't have it in stock we accept the money. We then collect the bricks at the brick* manufacturers and then from there deliver it directly to the clients house. Is this permissible?

ANSWER:*

It is NOT PERMISSIBLE in Shari'ah for one to sell an item which one does not own. However the easy solution is that you inform the client that you do not have the item in stock. After purchasing the item and taking possession of it, then you may sell it to him.

And Allah Ta'ala knows best.

Answered by:
Mufti Zakaria Makada

Checked & Approved:
Mufti Ebrahim Salejee

 

[TMGuide]

Wow I never knew that, that's great to know. I had never even thought about it to be honest.

 

[greenhill]

Just to clarify because commerce has evolved since those days, although riba is still riba whichever way you put it, these days you do have this 'arrangement' where although I'm not the owner of the goods, I represent the owner by being his distributor or agent etc.

Would this in anyway make a difference?

eace:

 

[Physicist]

Or another consideration may be:
Initial client's payment may be considered as a loan, which distributor uses to buy the breaks and on delivering he sells bricks and repays the loan simultaneously.

 

[ardianto]

Or another consideration may be:
Initial client's payment may be considered as a loan, which distributor uses to buy the breaks and on delivering he sells bricks and repays the loan simultaneously.

Suppose, I am brick distributor, and you are reseller.

A customer want to buy bricks from you. So you contact me, and I tell you "Okay, the bricks that your customer want is available". Then you take payment from the customer, and I give the bricks that ordered. This is permissible because I've guaranteed that the bricks which ordered are available, and I've given you authority to sell that bricks.

What kind of transaction that impermissible?. If you take payment from the customer without I, or other bricks distributor guarantee that the bricks your customer order is available . This is speculative. How if the bricks that the customer order is not available after you take the payment?.

Actually, selling someone else's goods is permissible in Islam, as long as the seller hold authority from the goods owner. Like salesman who sell goods that belong to the company.

 

[Scimitar]

what if someone gave you some things to look after and then moved country and you had no idea they would do that - and then like ten years later you find out they are in the opposite side of the world with no intention of coming back?

What does one do with their stuff? can one sell it?

Scimi

 

[M.I.A.]

i sell cakes, i dont bake the cakes i buy them.

sometimes a person orders a cake and i do not have it and have yet to pay for it.

but a deposit is taken or the full amount paid.



i had never questioned the practice.

usually the bigger the order, the more likely it is that a deposit or payment is required.

it is only fair in order to reduce the risk involved.




although the doors are open.