Section
If the option period is extended beyond the time needed, the sale becomes invalid and is impermissible, because this introduces a degree of uncertainty that is not permissible in sales. If, however, the two parties stipulate an option without specifying its duration, the sale is not invalidated. Instead, a period sufficient to test those goods is fixed for them, since the appropriate limit is known. By omitting to mention it, they have contracted on the basis of customary practice.
Section
Either party to a sale may stipulate an option for someone else. If one party, but not the other, does so, there are four opinions on the matter.
(The first opinion) is that this right belongs to the contracting party who stipulated it, not to the other party. If the seller stipulated the option for someone else, he may conclude the sale with the buyer or rescind it, as he wishes. He is not bound by the approval of the person to whom he assigned the option if he himself wishes to rescind, nor by that person’s rejection if he himself wishes to approve, even if the buyer seeks to hold him to that decision. For the buyer has no right in this matter alongside him.
Likewise, if the buyer stipulated the option for someone else, he retains the choice either to take the goods or to return them. He is not bound by the approval of the person to whom he assigned the option if he himself wishes to rescind, nor by that person’s rejection if he himself wishes to approve and the seller seeks to hold him to that decision. According to this opinion, the seller has no right in this matter alongside him. This is exactly like consultation: the party who stipulates it may disregard the advice and decide as he wishes, whether to rescind or approve the sale. This is Ibn Habīb’s position in al-Wādiha and the opinion preferred by Ibn Lubāba in his book al-Muntakhab.
(The second opinion) is that rejection and approval rest with the person to whom the option was assigned, and that the right to insist on this belongs to the other contracting party, not to the party who stipulated the option for someone else. If the party who stipulated the option for someone else wishes to rescind or approve the sale, while the other party insists on holding him to what