compensation. The sale of an item before it has been taken into the buyer’s possession is invalid, and the sounder opinion is that selling it back to the original seller is no different from selling it to anyone else. The same ruling applies to leasing it out, pledging it as collateral, or giving it as a gift, whereas manumission is treated otherwise. A specified price is legally equivalent to the merchandise itself, so the seller may not dispose of that price before actually receiving it. He may, however, sell property of his that is in another’s hands in trust—such as a deposit, a jointly owned article, capital in a qirād partnership, a pledged object after the pledge has been released, an inheritance, or property that remains with a guardian after the ward reaches majority—as well as a borrowed article or something taken on approval.

The object that is the subject of a salam contract may neither be resold nor exchanged for something else. According to the new position, however, one may substitute something else for the price. If the substitute falls under the same ribā category—for example, silver for gold—the replacement must be taken possession of in the same session. The sounder view is that the substitute need not be individually designated in the contract, and immediate possession in the session is likewise not required when the substitute is from a different ribā category, such as cloth for silver coins. Making such a substitution in place of a loan, or for the value of a destroyed item, is permitted; whether immediate possession is required follows the discussion just mentioned.

Selling a debt to anyone other than the debtor is, on the predominant view, invalid—for instance, if someone buys Zayd’s slave for the one hundred owed to Zayd by ʿAmr. If Zayd and ʿAmr each have a one-dinar claim against a third person, and Zayd sells ʿAmr his claim in exchange for ʿAmr’s, the transaction is unquestionably void.

Possession of real estate is effected by vacating it for the buyer and enabling him to make use of it, provided it has been cleared of the seller’s belongings. If neither of the contracting parties is present with the property, the authoritative view is that the lapse of a time in which one could reach it is sufficient for delivery. Possession of movables is achieved by physically transferring them: if the sale takes place in an area not owned by the seller, moving the item to a distinct spot is enough; but if it occurs in the seller’s house, such movement is insufficient unless he grants permission, in which case he is deemed to have lent the premises.

Branch: The buyer may take possession of the item if the price is deferred or if the sale is a salam; otherwise, he may not do so unilaterally. If the item was sold by estimation—such as cloth or land by linear measure, or wheat by volume or weight—delivery requires, in addition to moving it, that it be measured, metered, or weighed. An example would be: “I sold it to you at one dirham per sāʿ,” or “on the basis that it is ten sāʿs.” If a person is owed a specified amount of grain by Zayd, and ʿAmr is owed the same amount by that person, he should first measure out his own due and then measure out for ʿAmr. But if he were to say, “Take from Zayd what he owes me for yourself,” and the person complied, that taking would be invalid.