Book of Advance-Payment Sales (Salam)

On Salam, the Basis of Its Permissibility, Its Various Forms, and Distinguishing Its Valid Forms from Its Invalid Forms

Although given the particular name salam, an advance-payment sale is nevertheless a sale, since a sale is the transfer of ownership in return for consideration. Likewise, currency exchange, exchange by weight, exchange for consideration, barter, and similar transactions bearing names peculiar to particular kinds of sale are all, in reality, sales. Property whose ownership is transferred in return for consideration falls into three categories: specific property that is present and visible; specific property that is absent and unseen; and goods owed as an obligation under an advance-payment sale.

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As for specific property that is present and visible, the scholars do not disagree that its sale is permissible. As for absent property, selling it on the basis of a description is permissible and binding in our school. This differs from al-Shāfiʿī’s position that selling it on the basis of a description is impermissible, and from Abū Hanīfa’s position—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—that such a sale is permissible but not binding. This will be discussed in its proper place in the Book of Sales Involving Uncertainty, Allah willing. As for advance-payment sales involving goods owed as an obligation, these are permissible in our school for anything that can be precisely specified by description,