The second view is that it is not permissible to dispose of a purchased item before taking possession of it at all, regardless of what it is. This was the view of ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbas, who said: “I do not consider anything to be exempt from this ruling.” (1) This was also the view preferred by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who said: A purchased item may not be sold before possession is taken, whether it was sold by measure, weight, count, linear measurement, prior inspection, or description. This view is supported by the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar: “During the time of the Prophet, people would sell foodstuff in the marketplace without measuring it, so he forbade them to sell it until they had moved it elsewhere.” (2) That is, to another location.

The commentator cited, in support of this issue, the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar, who said: “We used to sell camels at al-Baqīʿ for dirhams”—in another wording, “at al-Naqīʿ for dirhams”—“and then take dinars in payment; and vice versa.” That is, we would sell them for dinars and take dirhams instead. So we asked the Messenger of Allah, and he said: “There is no harm in taking them at their rate on that day, so long as you do not part while anything remains outstanding between you.” (3)

However, the hadith is evidence that does not correspond to the issue in question. This is because the hadith concerns the sale of a debt owed, not the sale of a specified item. They would sell camels for dirhams, which remained established as a debt owed by the buyer, or sell them for dinars, likewise established as a debt owed by the buyer. They would then take dinars in place of dirhams, and dirhams in place of dinars. Our discussion, however, concerns a specified item: may it be sold before possession is taken, or not? Therefore, the hadith provides no proof.