Dealing with Ribaa (i.e., interest, usury) is one of the major sins, and Allah, Exalted is He, threatened those who deal with it of a war [against them] from Him and His Messenger ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺclarified the rules and principles governing business transactions in Islam, and underlined the different forms of Ribaa so that the Muslims should not fall into it, and he ﷺ also clarified the different forms of lawful sale transactions. In this hadeeth, the Prophet ﷺ explained how barters of two similar commodities should be conducted. He ﷺ said: “A barter of gold for gold is Ribaa, except if they are exchanged hand to hand (i.e., on the spot) and are equal in amount,” and the meaning is that the two commodities must be exchanged hand to hand before leaving the contracting session. Selling gold for gold is an unlawful transaction that involves Ribaa in all cases, except when the two commodities are exchanged on the spot, fulfilling the Taqaabudh requirement (i.e., immediate exchange and reciprocal taking possession of the purchased commodity and its monetary equivalent by the buyer and seller respectively in the contracting session). The reference to the Taqaabudh requirement in the hadeeth was given by the words ‘exchanged hand to hand.’ Likewise, the ruling applies to wheat and barley. If the seller and buyer want to conclude such transactions, the commodities must be exchanged hand to hand on the spot, before leaving the contracting session. A second requirement for the validity of a barter of similar commodities is that the exchanged commodities must be of equal amounts. It was narrated on the authority of Aboo Sa’eed Al-Khudhri (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet ﷺ said, stating the requirement of being of the same amount: “Do not sell gold for gold or silver for silver unless both are of equal weight.” [Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim]. The version recorded in Saheeh Muslim reads: “Gold is to be paid for by gold, silver by silver, wheat by wheat, barley by barley, dates by dates, salt by salt, like by like, provided that payments are made hand to hand (i.e., immediate exchange on the spot). He who made an excess, or asked for an excess, in fact dealt with Ribaa. The receiver and the giver are equally guilty.” .