Chapter: The Right of Option (khiyār)

The option of session (khiyār al-majlis) applies to every form of sale, including currency exchange (ṣarf), the exchange of foodstuffs, forward sales (salam), sales at cost price (tawliya), partnership sales (tashrīk), and compensatory settlements (ṣulḥ al-muʿāwaḍa). It also holds when someone purchases a slave whose ownership would automatically set him free. If we hold that, during the period of option, ownership remains with the seller—or is suspended—then both parties enjoy the right of option; if we hold that ownership already passes to the buyer, only the seller may choose to confirm or rescind.

No option exists in acquittance of debt, marriage, gratuitous gifts, gifts given for a return, pre-emption, leasing, share-cropping (musāqāh), or the bridal dower, according to the sounder view.

The option terminates in one of two ways: (1) by mutual confirmation, meaning that both parties agree to make the contract binding; should only one of them elect to bind it, his own right lapses while the other’s remains; or (2) by their physical separation. Long delay in the same place, standing up, or walking a few steps together does not count as separation; customary practice determines what constitutes it. If either party dies or loses sanity while they are still in the session, the stronger view is that the option passes to his heir or guardian. When the two dispute whether separation occurred, or whether rescission took place before it, the one who denies is deemed credible.

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Either or both parties may stipulate an additional period of option in any type of sale—unless they also stipulate that delivery be completed in the same session, as is required in transactions involving usurious commodities.