Chapter on the Invalid Sale (al-bayʿ al-fāsid)
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When either or both of the two counter-values are unlawful, the sale is invalid—such as a payment consisting of carrion, blood, wine, or pork. Equally void is the sale of what is not owned, for example a free person; hence the sale of an umm al-walad (a slave woman who has borne her master a child), a mudabbar (a slave promised freedom upon the owner’s death), or a mukātib (a slave under a manumission contract) is invalid.
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One may not sell fish still in the water, nor birds still in flight; nor may one sell a fetus, unborn offspring, milk still in the udder, wool while it is on the backs of sheep, a cubit’s length cut from an unspecified part of a cloth, a particular beam fixed in a roof, the hunter’s yet-to-be-struck quarry, or the transaction known as muzābana—that is, selling fruit still on the palm tree for an estimated amount of dried dates. Likewise, sales concluded by “throwing a stone” or by mere “touching” are impermissible.
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It is not permissible to sell “one garment out of two” without specifying which.
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If someone sells a slave on the condition that the buyer emancipate him, declare him mudabbar, or enter him into a manumission contract, or sells a slave-girl on the condition that the buyer make her bear him children, the sale is invalid. The same ruling applies when a person sells a slave on condition that the seller may use him for a month, or sells a house on condition that the seller may reside in it, or stipulates that the buyer lend him a dirham, or give him a gift.
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A sale in which the seller stipulates that the item will not be delivered until the beginning of the month is invalid, and so too is the sale of a pregnant slave-girl while excluding her unborn child.
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Whoever buys a piece of cloth on condition that the seller cut it and sew it into a shirt or a cloak, or buys leather on condition that the seller fashion it into sandals or attach soles to it, has entered an invalid sale. The same applies to a sale deferred until Nowruz, Mihrjān, the Christian fast, or the Jewish feast of Fitr—if