The destruction of a purchased car before its delivery and its analogy to the ruling on calamities (jawa'ih)
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, I bought a car from a man and paid him its value. While he was on his way to deliver it to me, it was involved in an accident on the road. Do I bear the loss, or does the seller bear it, by analogy to the ruling on calamities?
Answer:
You bear the loss, as long as the contract was concluded between you and you took possession of the car, and the accident happened while you were driving it or someone was driving it by your order. It is under your guarantee. Yes, it is under your guarantee. This is not a case of calamities (jawa'ih). Calamities apply specifically to fruits, because the buyer cannot access them while they are on the tops of the palm trees. But as for a car, if you have access to it, have taken possession of it, and are driving it on the street, then there is no ruling of calamity here.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, I bought a car from a man and paid him its value. While he was on his way to deliver it to me, it was involved in an accident on the road. Do I bear the loss, or does the seller bear it, by analogy to the ruling on calamities?
Answer:
You bear the loss, as long as the contract was concluded between you and you took possession of the car, and the accident happened while you were driving it or someone was driving it by your order. It is under your guarantee. Yes, it is under your guarantee. This is not a case of calamities (jawa'ih). Calamities apply specifically to fruits, because the buyer cannot access them while they are on the tops of the palm trees. But as for a car, if you have access to it, have taken possession of it, and are driving it on the street, then there is no ruling of calamity here.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب الشفعة — islamhouse.com (49:42)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.