Chapter on Contractual Options (khiyār)

Contractual options fall into several categories.

1. The option of the session (khiyār al-majlis). This option applies to sales, settlements that take the form of a sale, leases, currency exchange, and salam (forward-sale) transactions, but not to other kinds of contracts. Each of the two parties retains the right of option so long as they have not, according to local custom, physically parted from one another. If both of them disclaim or waive it, the option lapses; but if only one of them relinquishes it, the other’s option remains. Once its allotted time has passed, the sale becomes binding.

2. The second kind is an option that both parties stipulate in the contract for a specified period, however long. That period begins at the moment the contract is concluded. When the term expires, or they terminate it earlier, the option lapses. This option is valid in sales, in settlements equivalent to a sale, and in leases concluded either as an obligation (in the dhimma) or for a term that does not begin immediately after the contract, and if—