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Fatwa CenterMiddle-man raises price for inexperienced buyer
Question
Assalamualaykum wrbk Sheikh, thank you for your time in answering my question? My Question is as follows. I will tell you the situation followed by my question hopefully I can make myself understood. My friend Ahmed was looking for a house and his friend David decided to help him out. Now Ahmed does not know the house market very well and so David takes advantage of this and makes a secret deal with the real estate agent. The deal is as follows. There is a house for 200,000 dollars but David asks the real estate agent (let us call him ''Joe'') without Ahmed's knowledge to put up the price of the house to 250,000 dollars. The deal was that the Real estate agent and David would split this extra 50,000 dollars 50/50 so it would they would both end up getting 25,000 dollars each. Now Sheikh is this money that David has accumulated through this transaction Halal. Thank you again and I hope to hear a reply from you very soon. Assalamualaykum wrbk.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His Slave and Messenger.
The transaction that is mentioned in the question is not permissible as it involves cheating, trickery and deceit. The purchasing party (Ahmed) trusted his friend (David) for advice and assistance, and the latter (David) betrayed him by increasing the price so that he would take half of the increase and the agent would take the other half without the knowledge of (Ahmad). This is not permissible and it is obligatory for David to tell Ahmad the truth about the transaction, then if Ahmad agrees to it, David may take the difference, otherwise, he may not.
The Prophet said: "Whoever cheats us is not one of us.” Another narration reads: “Whoever cheats is not one of us.” [Muslim]
The Prophet also said: "Cheating, deceiving and betraying are in the Hellfire.” [Al-Haakim - Al-Albaani graded it Saheeh (sound)]
Allaah Knows best.
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