Hadith 2195

Footnotes

1. 1

   [1] Hasāh: A transaction involving throwing pebbles, which may be understood in three ways: (i) the seller throws pebbles onto the goods and gives the buyer whatever the pebbles land on; (ii) the seller sells land then tells the purchaser that he will get the land as far as a pebble thrown by the seller reaches; (iii) the seller tells the purchaser that he has the option to change his mind until he (the seller) throws a pebble, at which point the transaction becomes binding.

Commentary

All forms of transactions in which the quantity of the commodity being sold and bought cannot be estimated, are the transactions which involve uncertainty and cheating. For example: the sale of fish in water, or the sale of an unborn baby animal which is still in the female's womb. The transaction of uncertainty and cheating also includes the things which are impossible to handover to the buyer, like the sale of a lost animal. The deal of transaction done by throwing a pebble is a type of lottery, which was in vogue during the pre-Islamic period. For example: The seller would ask the customer to throw a pebble; and then whichever item amongst many got hit by the pebble would be sold for one hundred pounds; whilst those items varied in quantity, quality, value and price. Many modern forms of lottery are practised these days; as some companies introduce prize drawing schemes to increase the sale of their product. These all are under the rule of 'Transaction done by throwing a pebble'.