By Suzana Nabil Saad | Freelance Writer- USA

On a cold December afternoon I entered one of the Halal stores in the US to pick a can of fava beans for a perfect warm Egyptian breakfast.

“The truthful and honest tradesman will be with the prophets, truthful persons and martyrs on the Day of Judgment.” (Hadith)

A habit of mine, I double-checked the date on the can and was appalled as I saw the label: April 2012!

“April and now we are in January… expired since  months?!!

Oh my God, this is an Islamic store, where is the amanah (trust)?”

You might say “Chill out… Mistakes do happen.”

Well, a mistake is something that happens every now and then, not on a regular basis. When this happens too often (I had another incident just a couple of weeks before that in another Islamic store) and occurs not only in one western country but in a couple; it is not a mistake anymore, it becomes a norm and needs to be brought into attention.

God Almighty forbids deception among believers:

{O you who believe! Do not consume one another’s property by false means, but only by means of mutually agreed trade…} (An-Nisaa 4: 29)

God, most exalted, mentions the punishment of cheating in measures:

{Woe to those who give less (than due); who, when they take a measure from people, take it in full. But if they give by measure or by weight to them, they cause loss. Do they not think that they will be resurrected for a tremendous day, the Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds?} (Al-Mutaffifin 83: 1-6) 

Prophet Muhammad’s Hadiths on Trade Ethics

It was narrated on the authority of ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Amir that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

“A Muslim is a brother of his Muslim brother and it is unlawful for a Muslim (the seller) if there is a defect in the goods sold,…….. Read further in OnIslam.Net