properly due. The goods are then valued as of the day he took possession of them, if possession was delayed, and the seller is entitled to that assessed value—provided it is neither greater than the price at which he sold them nor less than the first assessed value together with its corresponding profit. This is Sahnūn’s express statement, but it is open to objection. The correct procedure is to value the goods as of the day he purchased them, then as of the day he sold them at a disclosed cost and profit. The difference between the two values attributable to changes in market prices is determined, and that proportion is deducted from the price together with its corresponding profit. What remains is the proper price, from which no further deduction is made even if the assessed value is lower.

Section

Concealment of a defect and a false statement of the price may occur together in a single case, as may concealment of a defect, fraud, deception, and a false statement. All these are considered according to Ibn al-Qāsim’s position, and the buyer may seek whichever remedy is most advantageous to him. The three things may also occur together in a single case: concealment of a defect, a false statement of the price, and fraud and deception.

Section

When concealment of a defect and a false statement of the price occur together in a single case, there are five possible circumstances:

(The first) is that the goods remain on hand and none of the grounds precluding their return has arisen. (The second) is that they have become non-returnable owing to a change in market prices or slight deterioration. (The third) is that they have become non-returnable through resale. (The fourth) is that they have become non-returnable owing to seriously impairing defects. (The fifth) is that they have become non-returnable through their physical loss or something equivalent to physical loss, such as manumission, a contract of manumission, a provision for manumission upon the owner’s death, charitable donation, a gift made without expectation of recompense, or the like.

An example is a man who purchases goods which then develop a defect while in his possession, or who purchases a slave woman and marries her off, then sells at a disclosed cost and profit based on the full price he originally paid, without disclosing the defect that arose while the goods were in his possession, or that she has a husband if he married her off. For he has added to the price the amount by which the defect diminished the value. If the goods are in the first circumstance, with none of the grounds precluding their return having arisen, the buyer may seek only the remedy for a defect. He therefore has the choice of keeping them without receiving anything back or returning them without owing anything. The seller cannot compel him to keep them, even if he deducts the falsely stated amount—namely, the loss in value caused by the defect together with its corresponding share of the profit—because