for if he sells without first informing him, the partner has a stronger claim to the property. If, however, he seeks the partner’s consent to sell and the latter says, “I have no interest in it,” then after the sale he may no longer demand it. Such is the ruling required by the Sacred Law; nothing contradicts it in any way, and it is the unquestionably correct view.” End quote.

What Ibn al-Qayyim has stated—that the right of shufʿa lapses when its holder waives it before the sale—is one of the two opinions on the issue. The second, adopted by the majority, is that the right does not lapse on that account and that mere permission to conduct the sale does not nullify it. Allah knows best.

Shufʿa is a legal right that must be honored, and it is unlawful to devise stratagems to annul it. The institution was prescribed to protect a partner from harm; when someone contrives to void it, the partner is harmed and his legitimate right is infringed. Imam Aḥmad (d. 241 AH) said, “No kind of trickery is permissible for invalidating it, nor for invalidating any Muslim’s right.” The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Do not perpetrate what the Jews perpetrated, thereby making Allah’s prohibitions lawful through the flimsiest of ruses.”

Among the ploys used to defeat shufʿa is to pretend that one has donated his share to another when in reality he has sold it, or to announce an inflated price so that the partner is unable to match it.