8. BUYING IN ADVANCE (SALAM)
BUYING IN ADVANCE (SALAM)
Buying in advance means the sale of described merchandise which is under (the seller’s) obligation (to deliver to the buyer at a certain time).
THE CONDITIONS FOR THE VALIDITY OF BUYING IN ADVANCE
In addition to the conditions for valid sales, other conditions (seven of them) must be met for buying in advance to be valid:
a) that the price of the merchandise be received when the agreement is first made. It is sufficient to merely see the price that is being accepted, even when its exact amount is unknown;
b) that the merchandise bought in advance be a financial obligation (dayn) (owed by the seller (meaning that buying in advance is not valid for particular individual articles (‘ayn) (i.e. “this one” and no other» which the seller will deliver when its time comes). Its delivery may be due from the present onwards, or may be due later through deferment (by clearly stating whether it is to be due immediately or deferred) to a specific date (which specificity is a necessary condition for the validity of deferring payment). It is not permissible to say, “I advance you these dirhams for that particular horse” (which is invalid because of the condition that the merchandise bought in advance. be a financial obligation (dayn), which the above-mentioned horse is not, but is rather a particular individual article Cayn;
c) that the location to which the merchandise is to be delivered be clearly stipulated (though this is only a condition) in cases in which the buyer pays for it at a place where it cannot be delivered, such as the wilderness; or to which the merchandise can be delivered, but transporting it there involves considerable difficulty;
d) that the merchandise bought in advance be determinately known by volume, weight, quantity, or yardage in terms of a familiar measure. It is not valid for someone to say “the weight of this stone,” or “the capacity of this basket,” if the (stone’s) weight or basket’s capacity is not known;
e) that the merchandise be within the seller’s power to deliver when the time for delivery arrives;
f) that the merchandise not be generally subject to unavailability. If it is something rare (such as a great quantity of the season’s first fruits of a particular kind of produce) or something not typically safe from unavailability, such as “the fruit of this particular date palm,” then its sale in advance is not permissible;
g) that those characteristics of the merchandise over which the buyer and seller might be at cross-purposes be expressly delineated by clear specifications. It is not permissible (to buy things in advance which cannot be defined by clear criteria, such as) for jewels or composites like meat pastry (composed of wheat, meat, and water, all of which are expected but not delineable in terms of minimal or maximal amounts), ghaliya perfume (composed of musk, ambergris, aloes, and camphor), or slippers (composed of outer and inner layers and padding), nor articles whose top randomly differs from their bottom, like a lamp or pitcher (the top of which is sometimes wider than the bottom, or vice versa) (though the Hanafi school permits such agreements, calling them made to order (istisna’), which they hold includes whatever is customarily bought in this way. They affirm the buyer’s option to cancel the agreement when he sees the merchandise, and it is obligatory that the article be described very precisely), nor something substantially processed and altered by fire (meaning heat), such as bread or roast meat, since describing it (how much cooking it takes) is impossible in a precise way.
It is not permissible for the buyer to sell something he has bought in advance until he has received it.
It is not permissible to take some other type of merchandise in place of the article bought in advance (that is, when the buyer demands the substitute before the delivery of the original is due, though they may agree on it after that). If the seller delivers the merchandise specified, or better (than what was specified), the buyer must accept it (since it is apparent that the seller could not find a way to fulfill his obligation save through this means. If the seller delivers merchandise that is inferior to what was specified, then the buyer may accept it, as this is voluntarily refraining from demanding his due, but he is not obliged to, because of the loss therein).
(Source: The reliance of the traveller, revised edition, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller)
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