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Reselling items from a catalog

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Qibla.com

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

In the past I have purchased children’s books from a catalog and resold them on an online auction site. Recently, the catalog has added in small print the following statment-“Books purchased from this flyer may not be resold”. Would it be wrong to continue reselling the books now that I have read this statement? Would my income from these books be haram? Would it be ok to just use the books and then sell them? I feel confused because I feel that once I own something that it is my property and I should be able to do as I choose with it. I just want to be sure that continuing to sell the books would not be sinful. May Allah Reward you for your efforts.

Answer:
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I pray this finds you in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you the best of this life and the next. While you may have the ownership-right to resell these books, there is a consideration of proper conduct and of fulfilling one’s words–because when you buy from that catalog you are agreeing (explicitly or implictly) to abide by their conditions. If you can’t, then proper conduct would entail informing them somehow first.

Consider whether you can obtain the books from elsewhere, and look into whether your level/degree of resale is acceptable to the catalog company.

And Allah alone gives success.

Faraz Rabbani

This answer was indexed from Qibla.com, which used to have a repository of Islamic Q&A answered by various scholars. The website is no longer in existence. It has now been transformed into a learning portal with paid Islamic course offering under the brand of Kiflayn.

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