Section

A negotiated sale is one in which a man bargains with another over his goods and buys them at an agreed price. According to the well-known position, the buyer then has no claim on grounds of price disadvantage or mistake. It has also been held that he has recourse in the event of a mistake. This is the apparent meaning of the Book of Judicial Decisions in al-Mudawwana and of Ibn al-Qāsim’s transmitted reports in the Compendium of Sales. It is also the position transmitted by Abū Zayd from Ibn al-Qāsim in the latter book concerning someone who buys a ruby without thinking it to be a ruby, neither seller nor buyer recognizing it: the sale is to be rescinded, contrary to what appears in Ashhab’s transmitted reports.

As for price disadvantage—that is, ignorance of the value of the item sold—the buyer has no recourse in a negotiated sale. This is the apparent meaning of Ibn al-Qāsim’s transmitted reports in the Book of Pledges, and I know of no explicit statement to the contrary within the school. Some scholars have interpreted the case in Ashhab’s transmitted reports in the aforementioned book as expressing a contrary position, but this is incorrect. That case has a particular feature on account of which rescission for price disadvantage was required. It therefore does not contradict either the well-known position of the school or the apparent meaning of Ibn al-Qāsim’s aforementioned report from Mālik. Some of the Baghdad scholars have, however, attributed to the school—and Ibn al-Qassār has transmitted—the position that rescission is required when the price disadvantage exceeds one-third. Consider this carefully and ascertain it, if Allah wills.

An auction sale is one in which a man offers goods for sale by public bidding and invites higher bids. Whoever offers a price for them is bound by his bid, unless someone outbids him and the seller sells to that higher bidder, or the seller fails to confirm the sale to him until a long time has elapsed and the days of public bidding have passed. If two men offer the same price, they share the goods according to Ibn al-Qāsim’s position. It has also been held that the goods belong to the first bidder and that no one else may acquire them without offering a higher price. This is the position of ʿĪsā ibn Dīnār in his transmitted reports in the Book of Reward Contracts and Hire. He said: “They share the goods only if they offer the price together, at the same moment.”