Applying for 25 kg of sugar in order to get 5 kg

Question

If 5 kg of sugar is needed, one has to submit an application for 25 kg, and only then does one somehow manage to get 5 kg; if one applies for 5 kg, one will barely get even one kilogram, which will not meet the need. Does the situation described above not fall under lying (kidhb)?

Answer

In this case, “25 kg” is the designation (ʿunwan) for 5 kg, and in the view of the government, too, what it designates (maʿnun) is only 5 kg; so the difference between the designation and the thing designated has, as it were, been set by the government itself.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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