The Sale of the Unknown
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The first question of Fatwa No. ( 20213 )
Q1: We are in the city of Kananah and the matter confused us regarding an issue of sales. Some of us said it is forbidden, some said it is permissible, and some were hesitant. The issue is that we work in the Kananah Sugar Company, where the company gives each employee (one-third) of a sack of sugar at the end of the month. Some employees have a pressing need and sell their share of the sugar allocation in advance before receiving it, and the
price is lower than the current market price, on the grounds that the sugar was not present, meaning that the sugar is received at the end of the month while he sells it at the beginning of the month. It is known that the sugar allocation was not 100% guaranteed at the end of the month for two reasons: A - The possibility of the employee being dismissed from the company, in which case he would have no share of the sugar. B - The company may experience some programming errors, causing it to miss the employees' sugar allocation for one or two months and disburse it later. I ask you, with thanks, to issue a ruling on this issue in detail, covering everything mentioned, such as selling the commodity in advance without guarantee and the reduced price, etc. It is known that the company has 12,000 employees or more who deal in this manner, if not all of them, then most of them?
A: The sale in this form is not valid because it is a sale of the unknown; because your share of the sugar production is unknown in its occurrence. But if you sell a known quantity of sugar that is in the debt (to be delivered) until a known term for a cash price that is received in the contract session, there is no harm in that; because it is from the forward sale (salam) that is permissible by the Shari'ah.
And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Q1: We are in the city of Kananah and the matter confused us regarding an issue of sales. Some of us said it is forbidden, some said it is permissible, and some were hesitant. The issue is that we work in the Kananah Sugar Company, where the company gives each employee (one-third) of a sack of sugar at the end of the month. Some employees have a pressing need and sell their share of the sugar allocation in advance before receiving it, and the
price is lower than the current market price, on the grounds that the sugar was not present, meaning that the sugar is received at the end of the month while he sells it at the beginning of the month. It is known that the sugar allocation was not 100% guaranteed at the end of the month for two reasons: A - The possibility of the employee being dismissed from the company, in which case he would have no share of the sugar. B - The company may experience some programming errors, causing it to miss the employees' sugar allocation for one or two months and disburse it later. I ask you, with thanks, to issue a ruling on this issue in detail, covering everything mentioned, such as selling the commodity in advance without guarantee and the reduced price, etc. It is known that the company has 12,000 employees or more who deal in this manner, if not all of them, then most of them?
A: The sale in this form is not valid because it is a sale of the unknown; because your share of the sugar production is unknown in its occurrence. But if you sell a known quantity of sugar that is in the debt (to be delivered) until a known term for a cash price that is received in the contract session, there is no harm in that; because it is from the forward sale (salam) that is permissible by the Shari'ah.
And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.