Someone inquired of Imâm a’zam Abû Hanîfa ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’: “I want to spend my life worshipping. Please write something for me, and I will always be practising it!” When Imâm a’zam wrote the teachings about buying and selling, the man said: “This information is necessary for tradesmen. I shall stay at home and busy myself with worship.” The great scholar said: “Is there anyone who will not need food and clothes? A person who does not know the buying and selling part of Islamic rules will never be safe from food that is harâm, and someone who consumes food that is harâm will not get any thawâb for his acts of worship. His efforts coming to naught, his only gains will be torment and disappointment.” It is stated in the book Bezzâziyya: “If a person has not learned Islam’s teachings on buying and selling, it is harâm for him to engage in trade. Imâm Abullays ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ said so, too. When Imâm Muhammad Shaybânî ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ was suggested to write a book on zuhd, he said that Islam’s teachings on buying and selling would do in the name of zuhd.” (Zuhd means abstinence from most of [Islam’s permissions termed] mubâhs for fear of falling into doubtful practices.)

Ihtikâr (profiteering) means collecting victuals for men and animals from markets, hoarding them, and selling them when prices soar. Our blessed Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “If a person buys victuals and keeps them for forty days so that he may sell them at higher prices, he will not be able to compensate for the sin he has incurred even if he dispenses all of them to poor people free of charge.”Again, he stated: “If a person preserves victuals for forty days, Allâhu ta’âlâ will be cross with him. For, he has not respected Allâhu ta’âlâ.” Another hadîth-i-sherîf reads as follows: “If a person buys victuals from the outside, brings them into town, and sells them at market prices, he will earn as much thawâb as if he gave alms, or he will earn the same thawâb as if he manumitted a slave.” Imâm ’Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ stated: “If a person preserves victuals for forty days, his heart will become dark.”