Bab al-Salam: Advance Price, Specified Goods, Delivery Date and Conditions

1. The nature of a salam sale

باب السلم
Translation: Chapter on the salam sale.

Salam is a sale in which the buyer pays the entire price now and the seller becomes obliged to deliver goods of an agreed type, grade and quantity on a specified future date. The buyer is the rabb al-salam, seller the muslam ilayh, advance price the ra's al-mal, and future deliverable the muslam fih.
Example: a trader receives Rs 80,000 now in exchange for a duty to deliver 400 kg of specified rice after 3 months. The contract concerns goods defined by description, not ownership of one already identified sack.

2. Why salam is permitted

Ordinary sales place great weight on identifiable goods and deliverability. Salam is a tightly specified exception permitting advance payment for future-described goods, serving trade and production needs while controlling uncertainty.
A farmer needs working capital now, while a buyer wants a fixed quantity of produce later. Salam can accommodate both interests only through a disciplined bargain. An assurance such as “I will deliver some crops eventually” is insufficient: the characteristics, quantity and date must be settled.

3. Classes of goods eligible for salam

السلم جائز في المكيلات والموزونات والمعدودات التي لا تتفاوت كالجوز والبيض وفي المذروعات
Translation: Salam is permissible in measured, weighed, sufficiently uniform counted goods such as walnuts and eggs, and goods measured by length.

Quduri lists goods measurable by volume, by weight, by count where individual variation is insignificant, and by length or similar fixed measure.
Specified rice, a defined grade of metal, eggs whose individual differences are commercially negligible, and fabric meeting an agreed measurement illustrate these classes. Membership in a general class never eliminates the need for a clear quantity, quality and delivery undertaking.

4. Why walnuts and eggs are cited

The phrase counted goods without material disparity does not require every egg or walnut to weigh exactly the same. It means that after grading them, remaining ordinary variation is too small to generate substantial dispute.
“100 eggs” may still require a clearly agreed grade. By contrast, 100 individually very different objects cannot be made sufficiently determinate through counting alone. The operative test is reliable specification of quality and quantity, not just the existence of a number.

5. Why animals are excluded in this classical ruling

ولا يجوز السلم في الحيوان ولا في أطرافه
Translation: Salam is not permitted in animals or their limbs under this ruling.

Quduri states the classical Hanafi prohibition of salam in living animals. Animals within one nominal kind may differ materially in health, age, strength and other individual qualities that are difficult to control fully by description.
A present sale of one identified animal is not the same as an undertaking to deliver some future, unidentified animal. The passage addresses the latter. Other juristic schools discuss animal salam differently, so the Hanafi rule should not be presented as an undisputed universal position.

6. Hides counted by number

ولا في الجلود عددا
Translation: Nor is salam in hides by number permissible.

The objection to hides counted by number is not merely that hides come from animals. Individual skins may vary in area, thickness, quality and defects; agreeing on 20 skins alone can leave a serious uncertainty about what is owed.
Quduri's wording specifically rejects a salam arrangement based on the number of hides. That limited wording should not be expanded into a claim about every possible transaction in processed hides under every alternative measurement system.

7. Bundles of firewood and fodder

ولا في الحطب حزما ولا في الرطبة جرزا
Translation: Nor in firewood by bundles, nor in fresh fodder by sheaves.

A bundle of firewood or sheaf of green fodder may differ widely in density and size. The phrase “10 bundles” does not necessarily give a dependable quantity: some bundles may be tightly packed and others loose.
Quduri rejects salam defined through those variable bundle units. A transaction using a reliable weight and a reproducible commodity description calls for a separate legal evaluation; changing the word “bundle” alone does not cure uncertainty.

8. Availability from contract until maturity

ولا يجوز السلم حتى يكون المسلم فيه موجودا من حين العقد إلى حين المحل
Translation: Salam is not permitted unless the stipulated goods are available from the contract until the delivery time.

A central Quduri condition is that the type of goods owed remain available from formation of the contract until maturity. This does not demand the seller already own all goods on day one; rather, the class of goods must be obtainable without depending upon a purely accidental crop outcome.
Example: a commodity entirely absent from the market for a large part of the agreed period raises the classical difficulty of interruption in supply. The concern is availability of the stipulated genus, not an arbitrary seasonal label.

9. A definite future delivery date is mandatory

ولا يصح السلم إلا مؤجلا ولا يجوز إلا بأجل معلوم
Translation: Salam is valid only with deferred delivery, and only for a known period.

Ajal ma'lum is a delivery period fixed so that the time when performance becomes due is identifiable. “When the harvest is ready” or “whenever convenient” may leave the crucial date uncertain. An agreed calendar date or precisely calculable period avoids that defect.
Quduri also requires salam itself to be deferred, distinguishing the classical salam contract from an ordinary immediate sale. An agreement for immediate delivery needs to be analyzed under its own appropriate contract rules.

10. Why an unstandardized measure fails

ولا يجوز السلم بمكيال رجل بعينه ولا بذراع رجل بعينه
Translation: Salam is not valid using a particular person’s undefined vessel or cubit as the measuring standard.

If a contract specifies one person's personal vessel without anyone knowing its exact capacity, the quantity owed is unstable. If the vessel disappears or its size is disputed, the buyer's right may become impossible to establish.
The same reasoning applies to a private cubit measure of unknown length. Fath al-Qadir explains that a known, reproducible capacity avoids the problem; the prohibited feature is an unknown standard, not the mere naming of a person's vessel.

11. Conditioning salam on one village or tree

ولا في طعام قرية بعينها ولا ثمرة نخلة بعينها
Translation: Nor in produce restricted to one specified village or fruit of one particular palm.

The muslam fih is a described obligation owed by the seller, not a contingent crop from one source that may fail entirely. Restricting it to a particular village's crop or one specific date palm defeats that general deliverable obligation.
An obligation to deliver 200 kg of defined dates is different from promising only the future dates of one named palm. If that palm bears no fruit, the second arrangement leaves the very subject of the bargain exposed to failure.

12. Abu Hanifa’s seven contractual specifications

ولا يصح السلم عند أبي حنيفة إلا بسبع شرائط
Translation: According to Abu Hanifa, salam is not valid without seven conditions.

Quduri attributes seven specifications to Abu Hanifa. The worked juristic enumeration is:
1. Genus, e.g. wheat.
2. Variety or type.
3. Quality or grade.
4. Quantity of the future goods, e.g. 500 kg.
5. A known future date.
6. Amount of the advance capital when the exchange is governed by that amount.
7. Delivery location when transport is costly.
Together these seven specifications settle the scope, nature, timing and required delivery place of the obligation. Quantity of the future goods is essential: without it, the buyer's entitlement and the seller's duty remain undefined.

13. Genus, variety and grade are different

Genus answers what commodity is being sold, such as wheat or rice. Type identifies a recognized variety within it. Quality specifies the agreed grade, such as cleanliness, moisture threshold or allowable broken grains.
“Good rice” may remain too indefinite: genus is known but the variety and objective grade may not be. A sounder description identifies a recognized rice variety, grade, exact 300 kg quantity and delivery date.

14. The quantity of the future goods

The future goods must be quantified in units reproducible at the date of delivery. “One truckload of rice” is inadequate if the truck capacity is not fixed; “400 kg” identifies a legally examinable quantity. Without specification, neither the seller's obligation nor the buyer's entitlement is clear.
This is a core element of the seven conditions. Unless the quantity is known, the obligation remains disputable from the beginning; a standard weight, measure, count or length resolves the issue.

15. When must the advance capital amount be named?

ومعرفة مقدار رأس المال إذا كان مما يتعلق العقد على قدره
Translation: The amount of advance capital must be known when the contract depends on its quantity.

For Abu Hanifa, if the advance capital is of a kind whose quantity defines the contractual countervalue—by weight, measure or count—its quantity must also be known. Merely pointing to a bag as “the payment” does not suffice when the amount remains unknown.
If some coins later prove defective or the bargain must be unwound, the parties need to know what quantity formed the original price. Stating and paying an exact Rs 80,000 ordinarily resolves that numerical uncertainty.

16. Naming the delivery location

وتسمية المكان الذي يوافيه فيه إذا كان له حمل ومؤنة
Translation: The place of delivery must be designated when the goods require carriage and expense.

For bulky or costly goods, the delivery location can materially change the seller's expense. Delivering 400 kg of rice to a nearby market is not equivalent to transporting it to a warehouse in another city. Abu Hanifa requires the location to be specified where the promised goods involve significant carriage and cost.
For something negligible to transport, the same additional stipulation does not operate in the same form. The rule prevents disputes about who bears the burden of transportation.

17. The disciples on specified capital

وقال أبو يوسف ومحمد لا يحتاج إلى تسمية رأس المال إذا كان معينا
Translation: Abu Yusuf and Muhammad say that when the capital is individually designated, a separate naming of its amount is not necessary.

Abu Yusuf and Muhammad differ where the advance payment is a specifically identified countervalue. They consider that clear identification can, in that situation, replace an additional statement of its quantity; Abu Hanifa still insists on specification of the amount.
This is not a disagreement over whether the price must be paid in full during the session. The advance-payment requirement remains; the difference concerns how the amount of already-identified capital must be established.

18. The disciples on the place of delivery

ولا إلى مكان التسليم ويسلمه في موضع العقد
Translation: Nor need delivery place be separately named; delivery is made at the contract location.

On delivery location the two disciples hold that an additional stipulation is unnecessary: absent an express alternative, the place of the contract serves as the delivery point. Abu Hanifa demands its express statement for goods with costly transport to prevent later disagreement.
For instance, an agreement for 500 kg wheat is concluded at Market A although the seller stores inventory in City B. On the disciples’ view, unstipulated delivery is due at Market A. This makes the consequence of the disagreement concrete.

19. Full payment before the parties separate

ولا يصح السلم حتى يقبض رأس المال قبل أن يفارقه
Translation: Salam is not valid unless the seller receives the capital before the parties separate.

A fundamental salam requirement is possession of the entire advance capital in the contract session: the seller must receive the full agreed price before the parties separate. A promise to transfer later, an intention to pay or a small deposit does not satisfy this particular classical contract.
If the price is Rs 100,000 but the buyer pays Rs 20,000 now and the rest next week, the stipulated salam has not met this condition. A written receipt is not automatically a substitute for legally effective receipt of payment.

20. Why salam cannot become debt for debt

The goods owed under salam are a future obligation. If the price is also made payable later, both sides of the exchange become deferred and the tightly defined exception for salam is lost. Thus payment during the sitting is integral rather than optional.
With modern bank transfers, initiating a transfer and achieving legally effective receipt need not be identical moments. Constructive possession and particular payment rails require separate contemporary juristic analysis; Quduri's medieval text does not settle every digital settlement arrangement by itself.

21. Transacting with advance capital before receipt

ولا يجوز التصرف في رأس المال ولا في المسلم فيه قبل قبض
Translation: Disposition of the capital or the goods owed is not permitted before possession.

Quduri bars dealings in both the advance capital and the future deliverable before the relevant possession. The required first receipt of the price cannot be bypassed by treating an unreceived amount as though it were already at the seller's disposal.
This is not a universal ban on spending personally owned money. The restriction concerns transactions involving the specific countervalue before the legally required receipt in that sale. The position after valid receipt is distinct.

22. No onward sale of undelivered salam goods

ولا تجوز الشركة ولا التولية في المسلم فيه قبل قبضه
Translation: Partnership or tawliyah in the salam goods is not permitted before they are received.

A salam buyer who has contracted for 300 kg of rice possesses a claim against the seller until delivery, not rice already received and identified. The buyer may not treat that undelivered salam commodity as ordinary possessed inventory for resale to a third party.
The chapter’s restrictions on partnership and tawliyah likewise concern onward dealing in that undelivered salam entitlement. After actual receipt, any new contract needs to satisfy the applicable rules of sale.

23. A fully specified practical salam contract

Suppose the buyer pays the entire Rs 100,000 during the sitting. The seller undertakes to provide 500 kg of a defined rice variety and grade on 1 February 2027 at a specified warehouse; goods of the stipulated kind remain obtainable in the market throughout the period.
The genus, type, grade, quantity, date, relevant delivery location and capital are all determined. The promise is not restricted to one farmer’s particular field. This is a classroom application of the principles; other transaction-specific conditions still require examination before a real contract is implemented.

24. Contrasting defective salam arrangements

One proposed salam sale can be deficient for very different reasons:
1. “100 bundles of firewood” — uncertain measurement.
2. “300 kg when the harvest finishes” — indeterminate delivery date.
3. “Dates only from this tree” — dependency on one contingent source.
4. “10% of the price now” — failure of complete advance payment.
5. “500 kg rice of any kind” — disputable type and grade.
These are not one defect repeated five times; their different causes require different corrections.

25. What the foundational salam rules establish

A sound salam sale requires a reproducibly described future commodity, known quantity, grade and time, supply continuity, defined advance capital fully received in the sitting, and a specified delivery place when the classical rule calls for it. The Abu Hanifa–disciples disagreement over two specifications does not abolish the common underlying conditions.
This finishes the foundational section of the chapter. The next section concerns textiles with known dimensions, precious stones, brick moulds and the general requirement that goods be sufficiently describable.