“If you say, ‘I sell it to you for such-and-such in cash, and for such-and-such and such-and-such on deferred payment,’ and the buyer takes it away, he may choose between the two sales, so long as the sale has not been concluded on either one. But if the sale is concluded in this manner, it is disliked; it is two sales in one sale, rejected and prohibited. If you find your merchandise itself, you may take it back; but if it has been consumed, you are entitled to the lower of the two prices, with the longer of the two terms.” ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated it from him (14632).
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Al-Awzāʿī stated something similar, in abbreviated form. It includes: “He was asked, ‘What if he takes the commodity away on those two terms?’ He replied, ‘It is at the lower of the two prices, with the longer of the two terms.’” Al-Khaṭṭābī mentioned this in Maʿālim al-Sunan (5/99). Thereafter, the leading hadith scholars and linguists followed their way. Among them were:
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Imam al-Nasāʾī, who stated under the chapter, “Two Sales in One Sale”: “It is for one to say: ‘I sell you this commodity for one hundred dirhams in cash, or for two hundred dirhams on deferred payment.’” He similarly explained the hadith of Ibn ʿAmr: “Two conditions in a sale are not lawful.” It is cited in al-Irwāʾ (1305); see also Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (7520).
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Ibn Ḥibbān, who said in his Ṣaḥīḥ (7/225, al-Iḥsān): “Mention of the prohibition against selling an item for one hundred dinars on deferred payment and for ninety dinars in cash.” He placed this under the hadith of Abū Hurayrah in its second, abbreviated wording.
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Ibn al-Athīr, in Gharīb al-Ḥadīth, mentioned this in his explanation of the two hadiths referred to above.
The ruling on installment sales: Other interpretations of “the two sales” have also been advanced, and some of them may be mentioned later. However, what has preceded is sounder