Prohibition on buying goods from their sellers before they reach the market

Praise be to Allah.

It is haraam to meet the sellers of goods in the streets before they reach the places that are prepared for the selling and buying of goods, because that comes under the same heading as meeting riders coming in, which is forbidden, because of the hadeeth that was narrated by Imam Ahmad, in which it says: “Do not intercept goods before they reach the market.” It was also narrated by al-Bukhaari in his Saheeh (4/373) from ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him). And al-Bukhaari narrated in his Saheeh from Naafi’ that ‘Abd-Allaah ibn ‘Umar said: “We used to meet the riders and buy food from them, then the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade us to buy it until it reached the food market. According to another version narrated from Naafi’, ‘Abd-Allaah said: They used to buy food at the top end of the market, and sell it where they bought it. But the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) forbade them to sell it where they had bought it until they had moved it. According to a report narrated by Muslim: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Do not intercept incoming merchants; if a person intercepts (an incoming merchant) and buys from him, the merchant has the choice of taking it back when he reaches the market.” It is haraam to intercept them, and whoever intercepts them before they reach the market is a sinner who is disobeying Allaah, may He be exalted, if he knows of the prohibition, because this involves betraying the seller and harming the people in the marketplace. If this is proven and the seller has been cheated, i.e., he sold it at a lower price which is not the usual price in the market, then the seller has the choice of either going ahead with the sale or canceling the sale. And that comes under the heading of giving the choice when a person has been cheated.” End quote.