kind, without the specifications required for an advance-payment sale. Likewise, the horses, camels, and various kinds of weapons were to be lent without specification or description, contingent upon a condition that might or might not arise.

These texts therefore show that, where consideration is given in exchange for something other than property—as with the bridal due, payment under a contract of emancipation, compensation for release from marriage, a settlement in lieu of retaliation, the jizyah (poll tax), and a peace settlement with a belligerent people—knowledge of the price or fee is not obligatory. Nor should every contract involving uncertainty be treated by analogy with a sale involving uncertainty, because financial payments are either not obligatory under these contracts or are not their principal purpose. Where uncertainty affects something that is not the principal purpose, it does not lead to the harm mentioned in connection with sales. Rather, requiring precise specification in such matters entails hardship and difficulty, which Islamic law seeks to remove, exceeding the harm caused by leaving them unspecified.

Section

Among the much-needed applications of this principle, and among the questions concerning the sale of fruit before its soundness becomes apparent, is a situation that has become widespread in many, or most, Muslim lands, particularly Damascus. A property may contain planted trees and land suitable for cultivation, and sometimes dwellings as well