What is Ihtikaar?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.

If you mean Ihtikaar (monopoly or price manipulation) which is mentioned by scholars of Fiqh under the section of “Transactions”, then we say that they provided similar definitions which are mainly centered on the following: Hoarding foodstuff and provisions when they become scarce and people need them, so that prices would go up. The scholars of Fiqh unanimously agree that Ihtikaar is prohibited when it harms people. Most of the conditions necessary for considering such an act prohibited are unanimously agreed upon by the scholars, however, other conditions are disputable.

As evidence behind the prohibition, they quoted the following Hadeeths; it is narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said:

·    “Only the errant monopolize.” [Muslim]

·    “The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, forbade monopolizing foodstuff.” [Al-Haakim and others]

·    “A person that monopolizes foodstuff for forty days has disowned Allaah The Almighty, and Allaah The Almighty Has Disowned him. If an inhabitant of a place (village, and so on) spent a night feeling hungry, Allaah Will Disown the inhabitants of this place.”  [Ahmad and others]

·    “A person who monopolizes is cursed.” [Al-Haakim]

Although the authenticity of the two last Hadeeths is disputable, Ibn Hajar Al-Haytami considered monopoly a grave major sin based on the severe threat mentioned in these two Hadeeths as well as other Hadeeths which he mentioned in his book Az-Zawaajir ‘An Iqtraaf Al-Kabaa’ir. Monopolizing is prohibited to prevent harming people by keeping their essential needs to be sold for higher prices.

The following are some conditions necessary for considering an act as monopoly:

1. Monopolizing only applies to foodstuff as signified by the definitions of the majority of the scholars of Fiqh. But there are other relevant implicit opinions saying that monopoly applies to everything that people need and results in their harm if they do not find it, and this includes food and clothes. Another opinion is that monopolizing is restricted to food and clothes in particular because people are in dire need of these things.

2. The monopolized merchandise was bought by the monopolizer, according to the opinion of the majority of scholars. Consequently, if the merchandise is owned through gift, inheritance or if it was his own harvest and then he kept it, this will not be considered monopoly. However, some of the scholars of Fiqh are of the view that the criterion for considering this act as prohibited monopoly is to hold the merchandise in a way that harms the common people.

3. Monopoly only applies to the merchandise that is bought while the prices are high with the aim of pushing up the prices and increasing demand. So, if the merchant bought the merchandise while it was cheap and kept it until the price rises, this is not monopoly. But this condition is greatly disputable among the scholars of Fiqh.

4. Hoarding such merchandise leads to harming people. There are other details that should be reviewed in the original references.

Finally, we alert that the ruler must order the merchants who monopolize people's essential needs to bring out the monopolized goods and sell them to people. If they refused, he is entitled to force them to sell if he feared that this monopoly may harm common people. He is even entitled to take this merchandise and sell it and then give them the price.

Allaah Knows best.