Among the specific instances that Mālik classifies as “profiting from goods for which one has not yet assumed liability” are: 1) selling foodstuffs that are sold by measure before they have been physically received; 2) the purchaser’s reselling an item while his option to rescind (khiyār) is still in force; and 3) selling a slave who is under a muwaḍaʿa (profit-sharing) arrangement, for in all these cases the risk of loss remains with the original seller. If a sale is nevertheless concluded in any of these circumstances, it must be annulled and the goods returned; but if the item has perished while in the buyer’s possession, he is obliged to pay its value as of the day he took delivery. Some jurists maintain that the sale of a female slave subject to muwaḍaʿa need not be revoked if she is found free of that arrangement, because the contract itself was sound.

A further example of illicit gain without liability is when a man acquires merchandise for a fixed price on the condition that, should he manage to sell it, the purchase becomes binding, but if he fails to sell it he may return it to the original owner. Such a transaction is invalid: if it is detected in time, it must be rescinded; if the buyer has already taken possession and the goods have perished, he must reimburse their full value on the day he received them, whatever that amount may be.

In the same category falls every sale in which responsibility for loss or damage still lies with the seller—such as disposing of measured grain before taking physical possession of it, as we explained in its proper chapter. Included here as well is selling what one does not yet possess; one instance of this is the ʿīnah sale, already discussed in the section on deferred-payment transactions.

Another prohibited practice is talqī al-silʿa (intercepting goods). It means going out to meet merchandise that is being brought to market and purchasing it before it reaches its destination—whether at the outskirts of the town or at a distance of one, two, or three miles, and the like—according to Mālik. We have already clarified this matter and what