Chapter: Selling an Item One Has Purchased before Taking Possession

Anything you buy of trade goods—livestock, real estate, clothing, and the like—apart from foodstuffs sold by measure, may, according to Mālik, be resold before you have taken delivery. If you resell it to the very person who sold it to you for something other than the price he is still owed, the sale is valid in every case, provided the settlement is effected immediately and not deferred.

But if you resell it to him for something of the same kind as the price that is due at its appointed term, the sale is not valid unless it is for the exact amount of the original capital: no increase in number, measure, or weight, and no improvement in quality or type—just as we detailed in the chapter on reselling goods bought on advance payment before possession, whether the resale is to the original seller or anyone else.

If you sell it to someone other than your first seller, the transaction is permissible for the same price, for more, for less—whatever you agree—provided payment is made on the spot with no deferment. If payment is delayed, the sale is invalid and becomes a debt for a debt.

The same ruling applies to food sold in bulk, by estimation, while it is still on the ground, according to the well-known view in Mālik’s school. However, any food you bought by measured volume may not be resold until you have measured it and taken full possession. The same principle applies to what you bought by weight or by count: none of it may be resold until you have taken delivery and received it according to its proper measure—weight, count, or volume.