Chapter on Conciliation (ṣulḥ)

Conciliation is of two divisions. The first is conducted between the two litigants themselves, and this division comprises two kinds.

1. Conciliation after admission.
   • If the agreement concerns an item other than the one claimed, it is a sale concluded with the wording of conciliation, and all the rulings of sale apply: the right of pre-emption (shufʿa), rescission on account of defect, the bar on disposing of the item before possession, and the requirement of hand-to-hand exchange if the two counter-values share the legal cause of ribā.
   • If it is concluded over a benefit, it is deemed a lease, and the rulings of lease apply.
   • If it is concluded over part of the very property claimed, it counts as a gift of that portion to the possessor, and the rulings of gift apply. Such a gift is not valid if expressed with the wording “sale,” though the sounder opinion deems it valid if expressed with the wording “conciliation.”
   • Were someone, without any prior litigation, to say, “Settle with me concerning your house for such-and-such,” the sounder view is that the transaction is invalid.

2. Further rulings on conciliation involving debts.
   • A settlement of a debt for a tangible item is valid. If the two counter-values share the ribā cause, the compensation must be taken possession of in the very session; otherwise, if the compensation is a tangible item, possession in the session is not required on the sounder opinion. If the compensation is itself a debt, it must be specified on the spot, and as to whether possession is required thereafter, there are two views.
   • Settling a debt for a portion of that debt constitutes a remission of the balance; it is valid if expressed in the wording of discharge, remission, or the like, and—according to the sounder opinion—if expressed in the wording of conciliation as well.
   • A settlement in which a present (immediate) debt is exchanged for an equivalent deferred debt, or the reverse, is void; yet if the deferred debt is paid early, the performance is sound.
   • If one who owes ten immediately settles for five payable later, he is discharged from five and still owes five immediately; but if the arrangement is reversed, the settlement is void.