Can You Buy from a Seller Mentioning a No-Returns Policy?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

Is it allowed to buy an item online or in-person such as a watch where the seller mentions no returns?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate

I hope you’re doing well, insha’Allah

Yes, it is permitted to buy from someone who doesn’t allow returns.

Morally, a Muslim must allow for the option of inspection (khiyar al-ru’ya)–but you can’t hold them to it.  (The buyer could be made responsible for the cost of returns, and even a reasonable restocking fee.)

This is because it has come from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said, “Whoever buys something they haven’t seen has the option of cancellation when they see it.”

[Note: Imam Quduri in al-Tajrid and Imam Ayni in Nukhab al-Afkar have excellent discussions on the supporting narrations for this hadith.]

An option of cancellation isn’t a full refund policy: it simply allows inspecting the item and then choosing to keep it or return it. [Majalla; Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar Sharh al-Mukhtar]

And Allah is the giver of success and facilitation.

[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani spent ten years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times, first in Damascus, and then in Amman, Jordan. His teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in Damascus, the late Shaykh Adib al-Kallas (may Allah have mercy on him), as well as his student Shaykh Hassan al-Hindi, one of the leading Hanafi fuqaha of the present age. He returned to Canada in 2007, where he founded SeekersGuidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread Islamic knowledge–both online and on the ground–in a reliable, relevant, inspiring, and accessible manner. He is the author of: Absolute Essentials of Islam: Faith, Prayer, and the Path of Salvation According to the Hanafi School (White Thread Press, 2004.) Since 2011, Shaykh Faraz has been named one of the 500 most influential Muslims by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.