Kitab al-Buyu: Offer, Acceptance, Binding Sales and Price Clarity

1. Kitab al-Buyu: Opening a New Section

كِتَابُ الْبُيُوعِ
Translation: Book of Sales and Exchanges.

Bay‘ (sale) is a consensual exchange that transfers ownership under legal rules. The opening passages establish how a contract is made, when it is binding, and how its price is determined.

This lesson covers the opening consecutive rules through currency specification. Measurement-based sales and the following cases are reserved for the next level.

2. The Foundational Rule of Contract Formation

الْبَيْعُ يَنْعَقِدُ بِالْإِيجَابِ وَالْقَبُولِ إِذَا كَانَا بِلَفْظِ الْمَاضِي.
Translation: A sale is concluded by offer and acceptance when both are expressed in the past tense.

Ijab is the legally operative opening declaration; qabul is the answering declaration. Together they form the contract.

The past-tense forms “bi‘tu” (I have sold) and “ishtaraytu” (I have bought) are used performatively: by uttering them as contractual declarations, the parties form a transaction now rather than merely narrating a past event.

3. Which Party Can Initiate Ijab?

Ijab need not originate with the seller. The first operative declaration may come from either party; the other party responds.

Example 1: Seller: “I have sold this book for 500 rupees.” Buyer: “I have bought it.”
Example 2: Buyer: “I have bought this book for 500 rupees.” Seller: “I have sold it.”

The goods, price and matching intentions must be clear in both cases.

4. Words, Meaning and Mutual Assent

The text presents past-tense declarations as the basic operative form. Hanafi commentary also recognizes other expressions or conduct that unmistakably communicate a present transaction.

“I may sell next week” is a promise about the future, not itself a completed sale. Phrases such as “Take it for 500” must be considered in context: do the parties mean to transact immediately, and has acceptance occurred?

5. The Other Party May Accept or Reject

وَإِذَا أَوْجَبَ أَحَدُ الْمُتَعَاقِدَيْنِ الْبَيْعَ فَالْآخَرُ بِالْخِيَارِ: إِنْ شَاءَ قَبِلَ فِي الْمَجْلِسِ وَإِنْ شَاءَ رَدَّهُ.
Translation: When one contracting party makes an offer, the other may accept it within the session or reject it.

A unilateral offer does not force the other party into a purchase. Until acceptance, the offeree retains the option to accept or reject.

If a shopkeeper offers a particular pen for 100 rupees, the customer may consider the proposal. Simply hearing it does not impose a duty to pay or buy.

6. Acceptance Within the Contractual Session

The phrase “fi al-majlis” ties acceptance to the still-operative contractual session. Majlis is the transaction’s continuing setting, not an unrestricted period lasting after the negotiation has ended.

Acceptance in the active negotiation can complete the sale if the other conditions are present. A later acceptance after the session has ended does not automatically revive the former offer.

7. Leaving Before Acceptance

وَأَيُّهُمَا قَامَ مِنَ الْمَجْلِسِ قَبْلَ الْقَبُولِ بَطَلَ الْإِيجَابُ.
Translation: If either party leaves the session before acceptance, the offer lapses.

Before acceptance, departure by either contracting party ends the operative offer. The departure signals an end to that negotiating session.

If one person offers a book for 500 rupees and the other leaves without accepting, returning later and merely saying “accepted” does not bind the old proposal. A fresh, mutually agreed transaction is needed.

8. A Lapsed Offer Is Not a Rescinded Sale

Distinguish two moments:
Before acceptance: ending the session causes the outstanding offer to lapse; no sale has been formed.
After acceptance: departure alone does not cancel an already binding sale.

The governing question is whether acceptance had occurred before the session ended.

9. Sale Becomes Binding After Agreement

وَإِذَا حَصَلَ الْإِيجَابُ وَالْقَبُولُ لَزِمَ الْبَيْعُ.
Translation: When offer and acceptance are completed, the sale becomes binding.

“The sale becomes binding” means the completed valid agreement cannot be cancelled unilaterally simply because one party changes their mind.

A specific book sold for 500 rupees with valid acceptance becomes binding. Consensual cancellation (iqalah), or a recognized legal option, is a separate matter.

10. Session Option and the Hanafi Position

In Hanafi law, a completed valid sale does not remain freely cancellable merely because both parties are still seated together. The Shafi‘i school interprets the contractual-session hadith differently and recognizes a pre-separation session option.

This is a recognized juristic disagreement; the source is stating the Hanafi rule, not denying every possible ground for rescission.

11. Two Exceptions Explicitly Named

وَلَا خِيَارَ لِوَاحِدٍ مِنْهُمَا إِلَّا مِنْ عَيْبٍ أَوْ عَدَمِ رُؤْيَةٍ.
Translation: Neither has an option merely because the session continues, except for an option arising from defect or lack of prior inspection.

The passage immediately names two exceptions to the default binding rule: an option due to defect and an option due to lack of inspection.

These are not a claim that other contractually or legally recognized options can never arise. Later chapters explain further options under their own conditions.

12. Defect Option in Practice

Suppose a buyer purchases equipment believing it sound and later discovers a material pre-existing defect that affects customary use or value. The defect option may arise.

Mere regret, personal dislike, or damage arising only after delivery does not automatically become an original defect claim. Timing and the nature of the defect matter.

13. Option of Inspection

Suppose a buyer contracts for a particular chest without seeing it. On first inspection, Hanafi law may give the buyer a right to retain or rescind it, subject to the option’s conditions.

This does not mean every remote purchase is automatically invalid. Identification, descriptive information and the rules of the inspection option remain relevant.

14. Distinguishing Three Different Options

Option to accept: applies before a contract is completed.
Session option: concerns rescission after conclusion while parties remain in session; schools differ about it.
Defect option: concerns a legally relevant defect discovered after conclusion.

Treating these as one generic “return period” would erase the distinctions in the text.

15. Identified Exchange Items

وَالْأَعْوَاضُ الْمُشَارُ إِلَيْهَا لَا يَحْتَاجُ إِلَى مَعْرِفَةِ مِقْدَارِهَا فِي جَوَازِ الْبَيْعِ.
Translation: For specifically identified exchange items, precise knowledge of their quantity is not required for the validity of the sale.

An identified exchange item is the particular thing visibly selected for the transaction. A valid lump-sum sale does not invariably require a separate exact weight or count.

Example: “I sell this entire identified bag for 800 rupees.” Here the specific bag is identified and one total price is agreed. A separate per-kilogram pricing formula creates different issues handled later.

16. A Specific Object Versus An Undefined Debt

A present, specifically identified object differs from an undefined item to be supplied later.

Case 1: “This very vessel for 400.” The object is identified.
Case 2: “I will supply some vessel later.” Which material, grade, capacity and description? Uncertainty could defeat the contract.

Identification can remove ambiguity in a specific object; it is not a blanket permission for unknown goods.

17. Amount and Description of the Price

وَالْأَثْمَانُ الْمُطْلَقَةُ لَا تَصِحُّ إِلَّا أَنْ تَكُونَ مَعْرُوفَةَ الْقَدْرِ وَالصِّفَةِ.
Translation: Unspecified monetary prices owed as an obligation are not sound unless their amount and type or description are known.

When the price is an unparticularized monetary obligation, both amount and description or currency type must be known.

“500 rupees” supplies a numerical amount and named currency. “I will pay you some money later” leaves the price uncertain. Competing currency types make explicit description especially important.

18. Goods and Price Are Different Legal Subjects

Mabi‘ means the goods being sold; thaman means the price agreed for them.

“This specific book for 700 rupees”: the book is the goods; 700 rupees are the price.

The text allows some quantity flexibility for identified tangible goods but requires clarity in an unspecified monetary price. The differing treatment follows the nature of each object.

19. Why Price Ambiguity Matters

Example 1: A specific book is sold for a fixed 700 rupees—price is clear.
Example 2: “We will decide a reasonable price later”—the price remains unsettled.
Example 3: “Either 700 or 900; we will decide later”—no single definite price was chosen.

Consent alone does not turn a genuinely unknown price into an identified price.

20. Immediate and Deferred Payment

وَيَجُوزُ الْبَيْعُ بِثَمَنٍ حَالٍّ وَمُؤَجَّلٍ إِذَا كَانَ الْأَجَلُ مَعْلُومًا.
Translation: A sale is permitted for an immediately payable price or a deferred price, provided the term is known.

Hal is an immediately due price; mu'ajjal is a price deferred to a specified term.

Both modes are recognized, but a deferred payment date or term must be known.

“1,000 rupees payable on November 30” has a stated maturity date. “Pay whenever it becomes convenient” lacks the needed certainty.

21. Choosing One Price Before Concluding

A shop may quote 1,000 cash or 1,200 payable after two months as alternative proposals. A single price and a single payment schedule must be settled when the contract is concluded.

A valid fixed deferred price is not, merely for being higher, the same as imposing an additional interest charge later for delay. Leaving the price undecided at conclusion is not acceptable.

22. Why a Known Term Is Required

A deferred sale needs clarity about two separate matters:
1. What amount is due?
2. When is it due?

“50,000 on December 1” answers both. “50,000 around harvest time” may not fix a legally ascertainable due date.

The condition “if the term is known” removes an important ground of contractual dispute.

23. Predominant Local Currency

وَمَنْ أَطْلَقَ الثَّمَنَ فِي الْبَيْعِ كَانَ عَلَى غَالِبِ نَقْدِ الْبَلَدِ.
Translation: An unqualified price is interpreted by reference to the locality’s predominant currency.

When a locality has one predominantly used currency, an unqualified numerical price can be interpreted in light of that commercial custom.

At a local shop where “500” unmistakably means 500 Pakistani rupees, the understood currency may be sufficiently identified.

This turns on established practice and context, not on a universal rule that numbers always mean the same currency.

24. Commercial Custom Versus Explicit Terms

Prevailing custom helps only when the intended currency is genuinely obvious to the parties.

Case 1: An ordinary local purchase with an unmistakable customary currency.
Case 2: A cross-border online contract in which dollars, rupees and other units are plausible.

Writing the currency explicitly is prudent, particularly in remote or international sales.

25. Ambiguity When Several Currencies Circulate

فَإِنْ كَانَتِ النُّقُودُ مُخْتَلِفَةً فَالْبَيْعُ فَاسِدٌ إِلَّا أَنْ يُبَيِّنَ أَحَدَهَا.
Translation: If different currencies circulate without a clear prevailing one, the sale is irregular unless one currency is specified.

If several materially different currencies are plausible and none is dominant, a bare number does not identify the price.

Quduri calls the transaction fasid (irregular) in this case. Hanafi doctrine distinguishes fasid from batil, so the source’s precise legal label should be preserved.

For example, if “100” could mean 100 rupees or 100 dollars, the unit must be identified.

26. Irregular Sale and Clarifying Terms

The closing phrase “unless one of them is specified” shows that specifying the currency removes the ambiguity at contract formation.

A seller quotes “200,” the buyer asks “Which currency?”, and both agree on “200 Pakistani rupees” before concluding the deal.

A contract already concluded in an irregular form raises separate questions about rectification and possession; merely announcing a currency unilaterally afterward is not automatically sufficient.

27. A Four-Step Contract Checklist

Start a sale analysis with four questions:
1. What is being sold, and is it sufficiently identified?
2. Is the price amount and necessary currency description known?
3. Did operative offer and acceptance meet in a continuous session?
4. If payment is deferred, is the due date known?

Further inquiries may concern defects, inspection and other legal restrictions.

28. Analyze Three Transactions

Case 1: A specific book is offered for 500 rupees and immediately accepted; the opening conditions are clear.
Case 2: The buyer leaves before accepting and later tries to accept the former offer; that offer has already lapsed.
Case 3: “1,000” is agreed but two materially different currencies circulate with no clear prevailing unit; the price is ambiguous.

These illustrate separate issues of formation, session continuity and price specification.

29. Summary and the Next Passage

This uninterrupted opening section establishes five connected rules: offer and acceptance form a sale; an unaccepted offer lapses when the session ends; a completed sale is ordinarily binding; identified goods differ from an unparticularized monetary price; and deferred terms and currency units require clarity.

The next consecutive passage starts “ويجوز بيع الطعام والحبوب مكايلة ومجازفة ...” on measured and bulk sales; it is reserved for Level 102.