claiming replacement and claiming the price is that, if he rescinds the sale, he is entitled only to the price; but if he does not rescind it, he may claim replacement.
For example, someone buys a sack of wheat, each sāʿ at a specified price. Then someone destroys it by burning it, consuming it, or otherwise. We say to the buyer: You now have the choice. If you wish, you may rescind the sale and claim the price from the seller. If he rescinds the sale, the seller gives him one hundred riyals. Or we say: Keep the sale in force and claim replacement from the one who destroyed it. If, at the time it was destroyed, it was worth one hundred and twenty, the buyer in this case will choose to uphold the sale and claim replacement from the one who destroyed it—that is, its equivalent if it is a fungible item, or its value if it is a non-fungible item. Wheat is a fungible commodity, so he may claim wheat equivalent to what was destroyed.
Accordingly, anything measured by volume can only be fungible, unless this foodstuff has been processed into something else, such as bread or a cooked dish; in that case, it becomes non-fungible.
Anything other than this may be disposed of by the buyer before he takes possession of it.
His statement, “Anything other than this may be disposed of by the buyer before he takes possession of it,” means: anything other than what was bought by measure, weight, count, linear measurement, prior inspection, or description. The buyer may dispose of it before taking possession.
For example, if he sells an enslaved person, a camel, a house, or a specified car that he has not yet taken possession of, he may dispose of it before taking possession. This is because it does not require completion of measurement: it is not something sold by volume that needs to be measured, which may perhaps prove to be more or less, nor something sold by weight, which may likewise prove to be more or less. Rather, it is a specified item, and it may be sold before possession is taken, even in the place where it was sold.