With the Hadith - The Muhtasib

With the Hadith

The Muhtasib

We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere, in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith" and we begin with the best greeting, peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.

Narrated by Muslim in his Sahih, he said:

And Yahya bin Ayyub, Qutaiba, and Ibn Hujr all narrated to me from Ismail bin Jaafar, Ibn Ayyub said: Ismail narrated to us, he said: Al-Alaa informed me from his father from Abu Hurairah: "That the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, passed by a pile of food and put his hand in it, and his fingers got wet, so he said: What is this, O owner of the food? He said: The sky hit it, O Messenger of God. He said: Why didn't you put it on top of the food so that people could see it! Whoever deceives is not one of me."

It is mentioned in the book Sharh al-Nawawi ala Muslim:

His saying: (a pile of food)

It is with a damma on the Sad and a sukoon on the Ba. Al-Azhari said: The pile is the collected heap of food. It was called a pile because some of it is emptied onto others. And from it was said to the clouds above the clouds (Sabeer)

And his saying in the hadith: (the sky hit it) meaning the rain.

Dear listeners:

In this noble hadith, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, personally takes over the protection of public rights and prevents aggression against them. He inspected the pile of food by putting his hand inside it, and when he found the wetness, he ordered the seller to show this wetness to the people and not to hide it, because hiding it is deceiving people and harming them. This hadith is evidence of the legitimacy of Hisbah, and an explanation of the work of the Muhtasib. The Muhtasib is the judge who considers all cases that are public rights and in which there is no plaintiff, provided that these cases are not included in the hadd or felonies because they are originally disputes between people and are not public rights .... As for the fact that it includes all public rights and not only cheating, then his work, peace and blessings be upon him, Abu Dawood narrated in his Sunan from Qais bin Abi Gharza who said: "We were in the time of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, called brokers, so the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, passed by us and named us with a name that is better than it, so he said: O merchants, falsehood and oaths are present in selling, so mix it with charity"

Here, the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, commanded the merchants to be truthful in their trade and to give charity.

Al-Bukhari narrated in his Sahih from Sulaiman bin Abi Muslim who said: I asked Abu al-Minhal about exchange hand in hand, so he said: I and a partner of mine bought something hand in hand and on credit, so Al-Baraa bin Azib came to us, so we asked him and he said: I and my partner Zaid bin Arqam did that and we asked the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, about that, so he said: What was hand in hand, take it, and what was on credit, leave it.

Here he prevented the two contracting parties from riba al-Nasi'ah.

These hadiths show that the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, adjudicated in disputes that harm the right of the group, as for calling this judiciary Hisbah, it is a terminological name, and it means monitoring merchants and craftsmen to prevent them from cheating in their trade, work, and products, and taking them to use weights and measures and other things that harm the group.

Just as the Messenger himself performed the judiciary of Hisbah, he appointed someone to do it on his behalf... It is mentioned in the Tabaqat of Ibn Saad and in Al-Isti'ab of Ibn Abd al-Barr that he, peace and blessings be upon him, employed Saeed bin Al-Aas in the market of Mecca after the conquest... Malik narrated in his Muwatta and Al-Shafi'i in his Musnad that Omar bin Al-Khattab employed Al-Shifa', who is the mother of Suleiman bin Abi Hathma, as a judge over the market, meaning a Hisbah judge, as he appointed Abdullah bin Utbah to the market of Medina... Just as he, may God be pleased with him, used to perform the judiciary of Hisbah himself, so he would roam in the markets as the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, used to do... And the caliphs continued to perform Hisbah until Al-Mahdi came and made a special apparatus for Hisbah, so it became one of the judicial apparatuses.

The powers of the Muhtasib:

1. The Muhtasib does not need a court session to consider the case, but rather rules on the violation as soon as it occurs, and he has the right to rule in any place or time: in the house, the market, or the car, at night or during the day, and his evidence is the action of the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace... He used to walk around in the market and rule on the violation as soon as he knew about it... He did not summon the owner of the pile to a court session, but rather ordered him to show the wetness as soon as he saw it.

2. The Muhtasib does not need a plaintiff or defendant, but rather addresses any public right that has been violated or any Sharia violation, without waiting for a plaintiff to raise the matter to him... This is what he, peace and blessings be upon him, used to do... And it is addressing the violations and aggression against public rights, and removing them immediately in the same time and place, without waiting for a plaintiff or summoning the violator or aggressor to a court session.

3. The Muhtasib accompanies members of the police to implement his rulings upon their issuance, as the case of the Muhtasib is a public right that has been violated or a Sharia violation that has occurred, and his job is to remove the aggression and prevent violations, and his means in that are the police.

4. If the appointment of the Muhtasib includes that he has the right to appoint deputies on his behalf, then he has the right to choose deputies on his behalf who meet the conditions of the Muhtasib, distribute them in different directions, and these deputies have the authority to perform the function of Hisbah in the area or neighborhood that was appointed for them or the issues that were delegated to them... But if his appointment does not include this right, then he does not have the authority to appoint deputies for him.

Dear listeners, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.