al-Islam wa al-Tasir wa Nahwuhu aw Hawl Ujur al-Aqar - Dimn Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Islam wa al-Tasir wa Nahwuhu aw Hawl Ujur al-Aqar (Islam, Price Control and the Like, or On Real Estate Rent) is a short legal treatise in two drafts by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani (1306–1386 AH / 1892–1966 CE), examining the jurisprudence of state price fixing, monopolization, and the regulation of real estate rents.
Background and Manuscript
The work was prompted by public outcry over surging rental prices and contemporary writings on the issue by scholars such as Abd Allah al-Khayyat. Al-Mu'allimi wrote on the topic twice in his own hand, placing a distinct heading after the basmala at the beginning of each draft. Both drafts are preserved together in a single manuscript collection under shelfmark 4694 at the Library of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki), and were published as the twenty-third treatise in the seventeenth volume of his collected writings, Athar al-Mu'allimi.
Structure and Content
The treatise consists of two distinct texts representing two separate writing attempts by the author:
- First Draft (al-Islam wa al-Tas'ir wa Nahwuhu): Spanning three manuscript pages, this text begins by addressing the public agitation over escalating rents and the view held by some scholars that excessive rent increases by property owners are reprehensible, being either forbidden or nearly forbidden. Al-Mu'allimi argues that if such inflation causes widespread public harm, the governing authority is obligated to prohibit it, and the public is bound by scriptural texts to obey the ruler in matters that do not command disobedience to God. He analyzes the prophetic reports on price control (tas'ir), asserting that the Prophet's ﷺ refusal to fix prices—stating that إن الله هو القابض الباسط الرازق المسعر ("God is the one who withholds, grants abundantly, provides, and sets prices")—was a context-specific ruling (waqi'at hal) where price increases were natural rather than artificially driven by collusion or merchant greed. He also resolves the apparent contradiction between hadiths prohibiting hoarding (ihtikar) and reports that early figures like Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab and Ma'mar ibn Rashid stored commodities, explaining that buying seasonal goods such as dates and oil during peak harvests to sell later serves both growers and consumers, and does not constitute prohibited hoarding.
- Second Draft (Hawl Ujur al-'Aqar): Covering two manuscript pages, this piece introduces the controversy surrounding real estate prices and notes the need for thorough scholarly investigation. It is framed as an argumentative dialogue between property owners and other parties. Al-Mu'allimi outlines the owners' defence, including the sanctity of private property, the requirement of mutual consent in contracts, the historical context of government deregulation, and the financial vulnerability of some owners, such as widows and the poor. Al-Mu'allimi paused amidst setting out the arguments of the property owners and left the second draft incomplete.
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