Selling sealed boxes of returned goods

A question about a company that gathers products returned by customers into large sealed boxes and sells them to intermediaries, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that sealed boxes may be sold if they hold products known to the buyer, custom has established the practice and there is no uncertainty leading to dispute, but not if the kind of their contents is unknown, and set out the difference between the majority and the Hanafis over selling what is unseen. ¹

The questioner described a company that sells many kinds of products; some customers return them and some refuse the shipment, which the courier sends back. The company gathers these assorted items, such as toys, kitchenware and electrical appliances, into large boxes and resells them to contractors and intermediaries, from whom the questioner then buys them. ¹

The Department answered that the basic rule is to uphold the sales people customarily practise, provided they avoid uncertainty (gharar) and ignorance that lead to dispute, and that dealings built on ignorance and uncertainty are forbidden because they consume people's wealth wrongfully. ¹ It said that selling sealed boxes has two cases: first, when nothing is known of the goods inside, neither their kind nor their number, which is forbidden because it involves ignorance and uncertainty; second, when the boxes hold products known to the buyer which he has not seen, and people customarily trade them, which the majority of jurists hold is in principle not permitted, while the Hanafis permit it. ¹ For the Hanafi view it cited Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani in al-Hujja ala Ahl al-Madina, who allowed a bale of cloth that would be damaged by opening to be sold without knowing how many pieces it holds, and said that sale by estimate, needing no measure, weight or count, is among the most clearly valid sales. ¹ It concluded that sealed boxes may be sold when they hold products known to the buyer, custom has established the practice, and the uncertainty and ignorance that lead to dispute are absent, and that sealed boxes whose products are of unknown kind may not be sold. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4033, dated 28 December 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.