Buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price

Question

Question: Zayd bought unrefined cane sugar at forty rupees a maund (a unit of weight, ≈ 37 kg). Two months later the price of the sugar became thirty-six rupees per maund. A man, ‘Amr, asked Zayd for a hundred rupees as a loan. Zayd did not give him a hundred rupees in cash; rather he gave him the very sugar he had bought at the rate of forty, at that same rate of 40, whereas the current rate is now thirty-six rupees. Did Zayd do right?

Answer

If ‘Amr asked Zayd for money as a loan, and Zayd did not give money but gave raw cane sugar at forty rupees a maund, i.e. sold it, and ‘Amr took it, i.e. bought it, then according to the Shari‘a this sale (bay‘) has become valid.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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