the very same food would have returned to him and thus would have had no effective role in the transaction. Their arrangement would then amount to the buyer lending the seller a sum of dirhams to be repaid in an equal amount at a specified date. This is permissible. Success comes only through Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He.
Section
Some of the cases we have classified in this manner appear in the Book of Deferred-Payment Sales in al-Mudawwana, and many appear in the section entitled “Habal Habala” in the Book of Advance-Payment Sales and Deferred Terms in al-ʿUtbiyya, without their underlying grounds being explained or all their possible forms being comprehensively covered. These cases form a foundation for questions concerning deferred-payment sales. Whoever understands and grasps them will find the remaining cases easy. For this reason, I have taken care to collect and summarize them, classify their various forms, clarify their underlying grounds, and explain their meanings. My success comes only through Allah.
Section
If a man sells a commodity for a price payable at a specified date, then buys it back from the purchaser for immediate payment at a lower price, both sales are rescinded according to Ibn al-Mājishūn. This is the sound position on rational examination. Its support in the transmitted reports is the statement of ʿĀʾisha, may Allah be pleased with her, in the hadith: “How evil was your sale, and how evil was your purchase!” For she censured both sales.
According to Ibn al-Qāsim, only the second sale is rescinded, provided that the commodity remains intact. If it has undergone a change precluding its return, however, opinions differ. Such a change was said to include fluctuations in market prices, which is Sahnūn’s position; alternatively, it was said to require damaging defects, which is the view adopted by Abū Ishāq al-Tūnisī and other later scholars. There are three opinions concerning the outcome:
(The first) is that both sales are rescinded, so that the seller is entitled to recover from the purchaser only the price he paid him. This was the position adopted by Abū Ishāq al-Tūnisī as his interpretation of Ibn al-Qāsim’s view.
(The second) is that only the first sale is rescinded, while the second is upheld at the commodity’s assessed value. If that value exceeds the price for which he originally sold it, he is ordered to pay its assessed value; then, when the payment falls due, he receives the sale price, since this gives no grounds for suspicion. If its value is less than the price for which he originally sold it, he is ordered to pay