In this chapter we have set out the rulings on sales, salam transactions, the sale of a slave-girl on condition that the purchaser will make her an umm walad, and other comparable cases discussed alongside them.
When a sale is void, liability for the market value is imposed on the buyer as of the day he took possession of the commodity, not the day the contract was concluded—provided the commodity has not been dissipated by an act of the buyer or by any alteration he makes to it after taking possession.
If such dissipation has occurred, there are two opinions: one maintains that the value becomes binding on the day he took possession; the other holds him liable for its value on the day the loss (fawt) took place. The latter view is closer to analogy, while the former is the position most openly transmitted within the school.
All of this concerns merchandise that is neither measured by volume nor by weight. If the article is sold by measure or weight, the buyer must return an equivalent measure or weight of the same description and condition. Some have said that, apart from items that are eaten or drunk, anything measured or weighed is to be compensated only by its value, like other forms of merchandise; but the first view is sounder, God willing, and both positions are attributed to Malik.
If no equivalent measure or weight can be found for the item, one reverts to its value, calculated—just as described—on the day the buyer took possession.
The kind of loss that obliges the buyer to pay the value in this chapter occurs when the commodity leaves his hand and ownership through sale, manumission, declaration of tadbir, a mukātaba contract, charity, gift, or when it appreciates in value while in his possession after receipt, or when market prices fluctuate. There is disagreement, transmitted from Malik and his companions, over whether a change in market price itself constitutes loss in invalid sales.
It has been said that in cases of manumission, mukātaba, or tadbir, if the buyer is solvent for the price, the value becomes binding on the day that loss occurs. According to Malik, however, a change in market price does not constitute loss with respect to real estate; loss there arises only when the property leaves the buyer’s hand through sale, construction, or cultivation, or through any building, demolition, or planting that alters it from its former condition.
If the property leaves his possession and then returns to his ownership before it is altered or before market prices shift, he must restore it; and it has also been said