Book of Sales with an Option to Cancel

Section
On the Permissibility of Sales with an Option

A sale with an option is permissible, because the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“The two parties to a sale each have an option in relation to the other so long as they have not parted, except in a sale with an option.”

Some reports have the wording: “Unless it is a transaction with an option.” He thus indicated that some sales involve an option.

He also said to Hibbān ibn Munqidh—or to his father, Munqidh ibn ʿAmr al-Ansārī, as the accounts differ on this point:

“When you enter into a sale, say, ‘No deception,’ and you shall have an option for three days.”

The man had reached the age of one hundred and thirty, and whenever he sold something, he would receive an unfair price. He complained of this to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who told him: “When you enter into a sale, say, ‘No deception,’ and you shall have an option for three days.”

It has been said that this was a dispensation granted by the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) specifically to that man: he gave him an option lasting three days over whatever he sold or purchased, even without his stipulating it. Another view is that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) merely allowed him to stipulate a three-day option for himself, along with saying, “No deception.” On this interpretation, the hadith has practical application. In either case, it establishes the permissibility of an option in a sale.