Is Dropshipping Haram or Halal in Islam?

Mohammad bin Abdullah

April 9, 2025

Dropshipping — a popular e-commerce model — and understand why it may be considered haram according to key Hadiths and Quranic principles.

dropshipping Delivery Service Laptop Composition

Dropshipping has emerged as a widely used e-commerce model. It allows sellers to offer products for sale without keeping them in stock, instead forwarding customer orders to a third-party supplier who then ships the products directly.

Table of Contents

While this may seem convenient and efficient, the Islamic perspective on this practice must be considered carefully, especially with regard to principles governing ownership, possession, and fairness in trade.

Is Dropshipping Permissible?

Dropshipping in Haram.

Yes, dropshipping is haram in its conventional form if it involves selling what the seller does not own or possess at the time of the sale.

Hadiths from Sunan an-Nasa’i, Hadith 4611; Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3503; Jami’ at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1232 forms the foundation of many rulings in Islamic commercial law. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) forbade selling items that a person does not physically or contractually possess, as it opens the door to deceit and uncertainty (gharar), both of which are prohibited in Islam.

Evidence

“Do not sell what you do not possess.”
– Sunan an-Nasa’i, Hadith 4611; Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 3503; Jami’ at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1232
“Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression…”
– Qur’an 16:90

Bottom Line

Scholars explain that the condition for a valid sale is that the seller must own and possess the item being sold. Since dropshipping involves taking payment for something one neither owns nor has taken possession of, it contradicts these fundamental requirements.

Some scholars have made exceptions by suggesting that if the dropshipper acts as a broker (wakil) and clarifies his role, only taking a commission after the transaction is complete between the buyer and the actual seller, then it may be permissible with strict conditions — such as full transparency and no deception.

However, the standard dropshipping model — where the seller accepts payment and acts as the seller without owning the product — remains impermissible in Islamic law.