Consumer Protection in Islam

(Mahmoud Abdel Hamid Saleh)

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Abstract

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of some Islamic teachings concerning consumer protection as mentioned in the Holy Quran, the Sunnah of prophet Mohamed (pbuh), and some Islamic literatures. In this context, the research reviewed some topics related to consumer protection and management regarding the relationship between the seller and the buyer. The main topics in this regard include, fulfilling measures and scale when selling a products, forbidding ambiguous sale, encouraging competition and antitrust, prohibiting concealment of product defects, the sanctity of fraud in the sale, prohibiting excessive pricing, preventing collusion and fraud in the sale, abiding by the terms of sale, prohibiting the sale with exception of something known, freedom of contract termination in the selling meeting, returning purchased products to the seller, forbidding the seller from selling products he does not own, and prohibiting offers to buy a product while someone is still bidding on it. The paper also reviewed the evolution of the system used by Muslims regarding consumer protection, Hisbah. This system was based on state intervention to protect consumers from fraud that was exercised by some of the producers and/or sellers. The main conclusions of the research are: Islam early interest in consumer protection as compared to current interested systems, the enclosure of consumer protection activities within the activities of public administration that manage the state’s affairs, and the agreement of Islam advocated teachings with economic and administrative contemporary trends that aim at achieving stability and economic growth. Such topics include market-pricing mechanisms, encouraging competition and antitrust, and performing the quality assurance. Key Words: Consumer protection, Consumer rights, Hisbah, Trade rules.
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