Buying goods unseen, with payment deferred to the day of delivery

A question about buying a display screen by telephone without seeing it, with the price deferred to the day of delivery, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that this is a sale of a specific absent object described so as to remove uncertainty, permissible according to the majority of jurists with the buyer's option on seeing it, and that deferring the price to the day of delivery is a sale of an object for a deferred price to which there is no objection. ¹

The questioner said his brother had bought a display screen that turned out to be the wrong size for its place and offered it for sale within the family; he asked to buy it, and the sale was concluded between them by telephone on the understanding that the brother would send it on a set date and be paid then. Someone told him the sale was invalid because he had not seen the screen, and he asked whether that is correct and what the ruling on the sale is. ¹

Dar al-Ifta explained that a sale may concern a present object seen by both parties, a specific object absent from the place of contract, or a described object owed, as in salam, and that the case asked about is a sale of an absent object, since the screen is owned by the seller and actually exists but the buyer did not see it at the time of contract and relied on the seller's description, which removed uncertainty; it quoted al-Babarti in al-Inaya (6/335) reporting al-Quduri's statement that one who buys something he has not seen makes a valid sale. ¹ It said this kind of sale is allowed by the majority of jurists, the Hanafis, the Malikis, the Shafi'is in one view and the Hanbalis in one of two reports, with the buyer's option on seeing the goods, to take them for the full price or return them, because it is a contract of exchange whose validity does not depend on seeing the object, and because the aim is knowledge of the goods sufficient to prevent gharar and dispute, which a precise description achieves as inspection does. ¹ It cited the general sense of al-Baqara 275 permitting sale; the hadith of Makhul, traced to the Prophet ﷺ and recorded by al-Bayhaqi and al-Daraqutni, that whoever buys something he has not seen has a choice when he sees it; and the report, quoted by Ibn Qudama in al-Mughni (3/495), that Uthman and Talha exchanged their houses in Kufa and Medina and took the matter to Jubayr, who gave the option to Talha, which amounts to their agreement that the sale was valid. It quoted al-Ayni in Umdat al-Qari (11/267) attributing permissibility to Abu Hanifa and his companions, Ibn Abbas, al-Nakha'i, al-Sha'bi, al-Hasan, Makhul, al-Awza'i and Sufyan; al-Marghinani in al-Hidaya (3/34); al-Dardir in al-Sharh al-Kabir (3/25–26) allowing the sale of an absent object even without description, subject to the option on seeing it; al-Nawawi in al-Majmu' (9/290); and Ibn Qudama and al-Mardawi in al-Insaf (4/297). ¹

Dar al-Ifta noted that the Shafi'is in their more evident view and the Hanbalis in the second report hold the sale of an absent object impermissible as a sale involving gharar, as al-Khatib al-Shirbini says in Mughni al-Muhtaj (2/457) and Ibn Qudama in al-Mughni (3/494), but that the view chosen for the fatwa is the majority's permissibility with the option on seeing, since what matters is knowledge of the goods sufficient to remove the uncertainty that leads to dispute, which a precise description achieves as inspection does. ¹ It said that even supposing some gharar exists here, it is slight and excused, since what is forbidden is the gross gharar that leads to disputes, especially given the buyer's option on seeing, which removes the likelihood of harm; it quoted al-Dardir (3/60) that slight gharar is overlooked by consensus for need, al-Nawawi in his commentary on Muslim (10/165) on the Muslims' consensus that things involving trifling gharar are permitted, and Ibn Muflih in al-Furu' (8/313) that slight ignorance, or gharar expected to pass, does no harm. ¹ It then ruled that once the sale is permissible there is no objection to deferring the price to a known date or to the agreed day of delivery, since this is a sale of an object for a deferred price, permissible in sharia, citing the consensus reported by Ibn al-Mundhir in al-Ishraf (6/104) that selling known goods for a known price to a known term is permissible, Ibn Abidin in Radd al-Muhtar (4/591) that a condition deferring the price to a known term does not void the sale, and al-Mawardi in al-Hawi (4/358) that in sales of objects the price may be deferred whether the object is present or absent. ¹

Dar al-Ifta concluded that buying the specific screen, identified by descriptions that remove uncertainty and absent from the place of contract, is a sale of an identified absent object, permissible in sharia without blame, with the option on seeing and inspecting it, and that there is no objection in sharia to deferring payment to the day the screen is delivered, this being a sale of an object for a deferred price barred by no text. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 9005, dated 14 May 2026, in the category of sale, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.