and, in addition to the ordinary requirements of sale, further conditions have been laid down for a salam contract so that any ambiguity about its amount, timing, or type is removed, thereby averting harm and dispute and securing benefit for both parties. Among these conditions are:

1. Clear knowledge of the musallam bih—the item to be delivered.
2. Clear knowledge of the price.
3. Payment of the price in full during the very session in which the contract is concluded.
4. That the musallam bih is owed as a liability, not tied to a specific existing object.
5. Its description must be detailed enough to eliminate uncertainty.
6. The term of delivery and the place where delivery is to occur must be specified.
7. The musallam bih must customarily be available at the time it falls due for delivery.

Some scholars have supposed that salam departs from legal analogy and classed it among “selling what you do not possess,” which is forbidden in the ḥadith of Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām. This notion, however, is wide of the mark and carries no weight. The ḥadith of Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām concerns the sale of a specific, identified item that is not yet owned by the seller when he concludes the contract; he then goes and purchases it from its owner so that he can hand it over to the buyer who paid him before it ever entered his possession. That is the plain meaning of the report and its back-story.

Salam, by contrast, is linked to liability, not to a particular object; it is the sale of an item described in the seller’s liability. It therefore accords perfectly with legal analogy, the need for it is pressing, and the Prophet ﷺ said: “Three transactions are blessed,” and he included among them “a sale with deferred delivery.” Salam falls under that heading. Allah is the One whose help is sought.