4 – The Revealed Law has not set a specific limit for what counts as “separation”; the matter is referred to customary usage. Whatever people regard as a parting is the point at which the ruling attaches and the sale becomes binding. Thus, merely stepping aside in an open field is deemed a separation, and leaving a small room—or going up to its upper floor—likewise counts as a parting that obligates the sale.
5 – It is forbidden to separate out of fear that the contract may be annulled, for the Prophet said, “It is not lawful for him to leave him out of fear that he might ask to be released,” and because such behavior is a stratagem to cancel another person’s rightful claim. Imam Aḥmad said, “It is impermissible to resort to stratagems that nullify a Muslim’s right.” Ibn al-Qayyim observed, “The early generations agreed that whoever devises tricks to legalize what Allah has forbidden or to abolish what He has legislated is spreading corruption in the religion of Allah.”
6 – His words “while the two of them are still together” mean that they remain in one place, which confirms that the intended sense of separation is physical, not merely verbal, as al-Nakhaʿī maintained. Al-Khaṭṭābī said, “This is how people conduct themselves, it is the usage of the language, and the apparent sense of the phrase is that when it is said, ‘the people dispersed,’ what is understood is a bodily parting.” Abū Barzah and Ibn ʿUmar both stated that the criterion is bodily separation; al-Ḥāfiẓ remarked, “No Companion is known to have dissented,” and this is the view of the majority of the Companions, the Successors, and those who followed them. Al-Nawawī added, “Whoever denies this is disproved by the sound hadiths.”
7 – Ibn al-Qayyim said: “The Lawgiver instituted the session option in sales as a wisdom and a benefit for the contracting parties, so that the full mutual consent which Allah has stipulated in His words, ‘except that it be trade conducted by mutual consent among you’ (Q 4:29), might be achieved. A contract may be concluded suddenly, without reflection or assessment of value; therefore the perfections of this comprehensive sharia required that a span of time be allotted during which the two parties could reconsider and review the deal, allowing each of them to recover what he might have missed.”
8 – The Vizier said: “The scholars concur that the session option does not apply to contracts that are not—”