the price must be known; and that the two parties take possession before they part, and that the forward-sale (salam) contract be concluded at once, with no option clause (khiyār al-sharṭ) attached.
Section. Anything that may lawfully be sold may likewise be pledged as security for a debt once the debt is firmly established in the debtor’s liability. The pledgor may retract the pledge so long as the pledgee has not yet taken possession of it, and the pledgee is liable only if he acts wrongfully. Should part of the debt be paid, no portion of the pledge is released until the whole of it has been settled.
Section. Interdiction (ḥajr) applies to six categories: (1) the minor; (2) the insane person; (3) the spendthrift who squanders his wealth; (4) the bankrupt overwhelmed by debts; (5) the sick person with respect to anything beyond one-third of his estate; and (6) the slave who has not been authorised to trade. Transactions undertaken by the minor, the insane individual, or the spendthrift are invalid. A bankrupt’s transactions bind his personal liability but do not affect the actual assets already in his estate. A sick person’s dispositions over more than one third of his property remain in suspense until the heirs approve them after his death. As for an unauthorised slave, his transactions attach to his own liability and may be enforced against him once he is emancipated.
Section. A settlement (ṣulḥ) accompanied by an admission of liability is valid in matters of property and whatever leads to it, and it takes two forms: remission (ibrāʾ) and commutation (muʿāwaḍa). In remission the creditor restricts his claim to only part of what is owed, and it may not be made conditional. In commutation he exchanges his claim for something else, and the rulings of sale apply to it. A person may construct a projecting balcony (rawshan) over a public thoroughfare provided it causes no harm to those who pass beneath it. In a shared alley, however, such construction is not permissible without the partners’ consent. One may bring a doorway forward to the edge of a shared alley, but he may not recess it inward without the partners’ approval.
Section. The conditions for a valid transfer of debt (ḥawāla) are four: the transferor’s consent, and the acceptance