He was asked:

A merchant was granted an exemption by a sultanic decree, stipulating that nothing should be collected from him in respect of his trade. He made one trading journey, then sold the decree in his possession to another merchant because of the exemption it granted. Is the sale of the entitlement contained in the decree valid? Furthermore, the purchaser’s journey was cancelled, and he derived no benefit from it. Is he obliged to pay the price?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah, Lord of all worlds. The purpose of this sale is not to sell the sheet of paper: its value is negligible, and selling it is not the object at all. Rather, the purpose is that the purchaser should be relieved of liability for the levy collected by the sultan’s deputies, while the seller receives from him part of that amount, or compensation for it, because the seller himself had been exempted from it.

This resembles a disbursement from the public treasury, granted on condition that the recipient has come to the sultan, dispatched a courier, or performed some other such service. He is given it only if he performs that service. If neither he nor his substitute sets out, he is not given it. Accordingly, if this is due to an intervening circumstance, and neither he nor the holder of the decree sets out, nothing is to be released to him. In that case, the seller is not entitled to anything from the purchaser. Nor is what