Chapter on the Rulings of Options in Sales

Islam is a generous and all-embracing religion. It looks to people’s interests and circumstances and removes hardship and difficulty from the Ummah. One manifestation of this mercy in commercial dealings is the law that grants each party an option period, allowing him to reflect on the transaction, consider the benefit he hopes to gain from it, proceed with what he deems advantageous, and retreat from what he finds harmful.

In sales, an option (khiyār) is the right to choose between two courses: confirming the contract or annulling it. There are eight kinds of options:

1. The session option (khiyār al-majlis): the option that lasts while the two parties remain in the place where the sale was concluded. Each of them retains this right so long as they are still together. The proof is the Prophet’s ﷺ statement: “When two men transact a sale, each of them has the option as long as they have not yet parted and are still together.”