a rare and remote occurrence, and no ruling is based on what is rare. This is unlike the case of a specific orchard, where its fruit may often fail; hence they do not deem it valid.
It has also been said that a salam contract for a specific orchard is valid, provided that the stipulated amount is less than what it usually yields. Thus, if this orchard normally produces one thousand kilograms, the salam contract may be for eight hundred kilograms or something similar, as a precaution. But if you were to say, “For two thousand kilograms,” this would not be permissible, because anything exceeding what it normally produces is, in reality, like something nonexistent—indeed, merely imagined. Thus, we now have three levels: a specific tree, a specific orchard, and a town. As for a town, it is valid; as for a specific tree, it is not valid; and as for a specific orchard, there is a difference of opinion.
His statement, “Delivery must be made at the place where the contract was concluded,” means that if one enters into a salam contract with someone in Unayzah, paying one hundred dirhams for one hundred saʿs of wheat, without specifying the place of delivery, then delivery must be made at the place where the contract was concluded. If the purchaser says, “I want you to give it to me in Buraydah,” the seller is not obliged to do so, because delivery is required at the place of the contract.
His statement, “It is valid to stipulate delivery elsewhere,” means: somewhere other than the place of the contract. If the salam contract is concluded in Unayzah and he says, for example, “I want delivery to be in Buraydah,” then fulfillment of this condition is obligatory, unless the two parties waive it by mutual agreement; in that case, the right belongs to them both.
This is except where delivery is stipulated in a place that cannot be reached—for example, if you say, “On condition that you deliver it to me on the surface of the moon,” for that is impossible. If delivery is not stipulated for somewhere other than the place of the contract, then it is due at the place of the contract, even if that place is not the hometown of either party. Thus, if they conclude a salam contract in Mecca while they are pilgrims, and the due date arrives, then I am obliged to deliver it to him in Mecca, even though Mecca is not the hometown of either of them. However, some scholars hold that the matter is referred