If delivery of all or part of the commodity becomes impossible—for example, if the trees bear no fruit that year—the four Imams agree that the buyer in the salam may either wait or cancel the contract. The rescission relates to an item described as a liability in the seller’s debt and therefore remains valid in principle; its permissibility is not conditional upon the produce coming from that particular year.

These, then, are the conditions of salam as the jurists have inferred them from the revealed texts, and for each condition we have traced the wording that points to it in the two hadiths.

11 – The sale of fungible goods that are normally measured by volume, weight, or length is permissible even without a fixed term. If the transaction is lawful with a deferment, it is even more lawful when payment and delivery are immediate, although in that case it is no longer called salam in technical usage. Thus the meaning of the hadith is: whoever sells something measured by volume, weight, or length must do so with a known measure, a known weight, or a known length; otherwise the sale is unknown, whether it is a salam or an immediate sale.

12 – Installment sales have become widespread in our time. A person purchases a commodity, pays a portion of the price up front, and pays the remainder in scheduled installments, with the seller charging a higher price than for immediate cash payment. This is permissible, for it falls under Allah’s statement: “O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down” (al-Baqarah 2:282).

The Islamic Fiqh Academy’s Resolution on Installment Sales: Resolution No. 51

In the Name of Allah, Lord of the worlds. May blessings and peace be upon our master Muhammad, the Seal of the Prophets, and upon his family and Companions.

The Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, convened at its sixth conference session in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 17 to 23 Shaʿban 1410 AH, corresponding to 14 –