of the session is established in it, because it is a sale. Although it has rulings particular to it, it is included in the Prophet’s statement, peace and blessings be upon him: “When two men enter into a sale.” Thus, each of them has the option.
His statement: “excluding all other contracts.” This is because the basic principle is that, once a contract is concluded, its legal consequences take effect. Sale is an exception to this principle because of the textual evidence concerning it; therefore, all other contracts remain subject to the original rule, such as a pledge, an endowment, a gift, a sharecropping agreement, a transfer of debt, emancipation, marriage, and similar contracts. These do not have the option of the session, because such contracts fall into one of two categories:
First: they are revocable contracts. Their revocability makes it unnecessary to say that they contain an option, since a revocable contract may be cancelled even after the parties have separated, whether during the contractual session or afterwards.
Second: they are irrevocable contracts which, due to the force of their legal effect, cannot admit of an option, such as emancipation and an endowment.
As for a sharecropping agreement, it has been said that it is a revocable contract. On this view, it has no option of the session, because either of the two parties to the sharecropping agreement may cancel it.
A sharecropping agreement is when a person gives his orchard to a working farmer and says: “Take this, cultivate it, and you may have half of its produce.” The well-known position of the school of law is that it is a revocable contract. Thus, the worker may cancel it, and the owner of the orchard may likewise cancel it. There is therefore no need to say that he has the option of the session, because the option is already established whether they are in the contractual session or have separated. From this, we may derive a principle: every revocable contract has no option of the session, because its revocability renders such an option unnecessary. So long as a person may cancel the contract even after separation, there is no need to say that it has the option of the session.