Chapter on Gifts (1)

A gift is invalid when the item is indeterminate, apart from cases in which precise knowledge is unattainable.

The contract is concluded through an explicit offer and acceptance or through simple delivery (muʿāṭāh). It becomes binding once the recipient takes possession with the donor’s permission, and the donor’s heir steps into his place.

Release from a debt is valid with any wording that conveys that meaning, even if the amount is unknown or the debtor does not expressly accept.

Anything that may be lawfully sold may likewise be lawfully gifted.

When someone distributes gifts among his prospective heirs, he must deal with them equitably (2) in proportion to the shares they would inherit. If he shows preference to one of them, he must restore equality by reclaiming part of the gift or by adding to the others. Should he die before doing so, the gift remains confirmed (3) for the recipient. A donor may not revoke a gift that has become binding, except in two cases: a father with respect to what he has given his child, and a husband who, at his wife’s request, gave her something and then harmed her by divorcing her or the like.

A father may appropriate from his child’s property whatever the child does not need (4); nevertheless, he may not dispose of that property by sale, manumission, waiver of a debt, or the like. He acquires ownership only after taking actual possession together with a verbal declaration or an intention. The child, for his part, may not sue his father for repayment of a debt or similar claim, but may seek the specific property taken or the obligatory maintenance due to him.