Section

Advance-payment sales of animals and merchandise are among the transactions that retain their original permissibility, since neither the Sunnah, analogical reasoning, nor scholarly consensus has excluded them as a whole.

Section

Further evidence for the permissibility of advance-payment sales of animals and other things that can be precisely described and may lawfully be borrowed is Allah’s saying:

“O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down.” [al-Baqarah: 282]

He did not single out one kind of debt rather than another; rather, His words encompass all debts. Animals fall within this scope, since they may be owed as a liability. This is supported by the Prophet’s borrowing of a young camel, peace and blessings be upon him.

Ibn ‘Abbās also said: “I bear witness that Allah has made lawful and permitted advance-payment sales with delivery guaranteed at a known term. Do you not read the saying of Allah, mighty and majestic: ‘O you who believe, when you contract a debt for a specified term, write it down’ [al-Baqarah: 282]?” Thus, it makes no difference whether someone sells food and has gold recorded as owed to him, or pays gold and has food recorded as owed to him. I would add: or clothing or animals. And Allah knows best.

The argument by analogy is that, since such things may validly be owed as a dowry or a loan, they may also be owed under an advance-payment sale. Food is the established case on which this analogy rests. It is established that “the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, borrowed food, and that when he came to Medina, its people were making advance payments for fruit to be delivered after two or three years. He said: ‘Whoever makes an advance payment must do so for a specified measure and a specified weight, with a specified term.’”