Shirāʾ is the act or contract of purchase. Milk is the legal state of ownership that may result. Although purchase normally produces ownership, the two are not identical.
1. A person buys a slave: the act is purchase.
2. Upon effective purchase, ownership is established: that is milk.
3. A gift or inheritance may confer ownership without a purchase.
Consequently, a condition framed in the language of ownership may operate differently from one framed in the language of purchase. The jurist must ask whether the condition concerns a single state of ownership or a particular act of acquisition.