from Tamim Ad-Dari, regarding this Ayah: O you who believe! When death approaches any of you then take the testimony (5:106). He said: "The people are innocent of it, other than myself and 'Adi bin Badda.' We were Christians who used to frequent Ash-Sham before Islam." They went to Ash-Sham for their business, and they were approached by a freed slave of Banu Sahm, who was called Budail bin Abi Maryam, with some trade. He had a bowl they wanted made of silver, but he wanted a great deal for it. Then he became ill, and willed it to them, and he commissioned them to deliver what was left to his family. Tamim said: "When he died, we took that bowl and we sold it for one-thousand Dirham. Then 'Adi bin Badda and I divided it. When we went to his family to give them what was with us, they searched for the bowl and asked about it. We said: 'He did not leave behind other than this, nor did he give us other than this.'" Tamim said: "When I accepted Islam, after the Messenger of Allah (SAW) had arrived in Al-Madinah, I felt guilty about that, so I went to his family, and informed them about what had happened. I gave them fifty-thousand Dirham and told them my companion had the same. They took him to the Messenger of Allah (SAW) but he asked them for their proof, which they did not have, so he ordered them, to have him to take an oath in accordance with whatever the people of his religion revered, so he took the oath. Then Allah revealed: 'O you who believe! When death approaches any of you then take the testimony...' up to His saying: 'Or else they would fear that oaths will be admitted after their oaths (5:106).'" So 'Amr bin Al-'As and another man stood to take an oath, and the fifty-thousand Dirham was taken from 'Adi bin Badda.'"

Yahya related to me from Malik from Hisham ibn Urwa from his father that A'isha, umm al-muminin said, "When the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, came to Madina, Abu Bakr and Bilal came down with a fever. I visited them and said, 'Father, how are you? Bilal, how are you?'" She continued, "When Abu Bakr's fever worsened he would say, 'Every man is struck down among his people in the morning - death is nearer than the strap of his sandal.'"

When it left Bilal, he raised his voice and said, 'Would that I knew whether I will spend a night at the valley of Makka with the idhkhir herb and jalil herb around me. Will I go one day to the waters of Majinna? Will the mountains of Shama and Tafil appear to me?' " '

A'isha continued, "I went to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and informed him. He said, 'O Allah! Make us love Madina as much as we love Makka or even more. Make it sound and bless us in our sa and mudd. Remove its fever and put it in al-Juhfa.' "

I said, "O Messenger of Allah, so-and-so has brought you clothes from Syria. What if you sent someone to him, and you get from him two garments on credit till it is easy for you to repay?" So he sent someone to him, but he refused. [al-Hakim and al-Baihaqi reported it, and its narrators are reliable].

Yahya related to me from Malik that Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn Qusayt saw Said ibn al-Musayyab sell gold counterpoising for gold. He poured his gold into one pan of the scales, and the man with whom he was counterpoising put his gold in the other pan of the scale and when the tongue of the scales was balanced, they took and gave.

Malik said, "According to the way things are done among us there is no harm in selling gold for gold, and silver for silver by counterpoising weight, even if 11 dinars are taken for 10 dinars hand to hand, when the weight of gold is equal, coin for coin, even if the number is different. Dirhams in such a situation are treated the same way as dinars."

Malik said, "If, when counterpoising gold for gold or silver for silver, there is a difference of weight, one party should not give the other the value of the difference in silver or something else. Such a transaction is ugly and a means to usury because if one of the parties were permitted to take the difference for a separate price, it could be as if he had bought it separately, so he would be permitted. Then it would be possible for him to ask for many times the value of the difference in order to permit the completion of the transaction between the two parties.

Malik said, "If he had really been sold the difference without anything else with it, he would not have taken it for a tenth of the price for which he took it in order to put a 'legal front' on the transaction. This leads to allowing what is forbidden . The matter is forbidden."

Malik said that it was not good when counterpoising to give good old gold coins and put along with them unminted gold in exchange for worn kufic gold, which was unpopular and to then treat the exchange as like for like.

Malik said, "The commentary on why that is disapproved is that the owner of the good gold uses the excellence of his old gold coins as an excuse to throw in the unminted gold with it. Had it not been for the superiority of his (good) gold over the gold of the other party, the other party would not have counterpoised the unminted gold for his kufic gold, and the deal would have been refused.

"It is like a man wanting to buy three sa of ajwa dried dates for two sa and a mudd of kabis dates, and on being told that it was not good, then offering two sa of kabis and a sa of poor dates desiring to make the sale possible. That is not good because the owner of the ajwa should not give him ...