before taking possession. Even if evidence establishes that he made the acknowledgment and that acknowledgment was legally valid, he is entitled, according to the more correct of the scholars’ two views, to require the seller to swear that the acknowledgment reflects the actual facts. If, however, the acknowledgment is known to be false because he acknowledged receipt before he could take possession, that acknowledgment is wholly invalid—all this being on the assumption that the sale of absent goods is valid, as when they are sold by description, according to Mālik’s school and Ahmad’s well-known position.

As for those who regard such a sale as invalid in all cases, such as al-Shāfi'ī and Ahmad according to one report, the sale is invalid from the outset. Abū Hanīfa considers it valid in all cases, as does Ahmad according to another report; however, the buyer always has the option to rescind upon seeing the goods. In any event, the imams agree that, under these circumstances, the seller must return the price when the buyer requests it. And Allah knows best.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

What is the ruling concerning someone who concluded a sale, then denied it and had the buyer formally acknowledge its rescission?

He replied:

If the seller denied the sale and the buyer accordingly rescinded it, the seller may not subsequently compel the buyer to take possession. And Allah knows best.