April 9, 2022, midnight

The holy month of Ramadan (May Allah bring Ramadan with blessings and piety to all Muslims) provides an additional chance to be closer to Allah, (the Mighty and Sublime), to think about this world life, its affairs and its destiny and fate, to weight into what is good for man and to increase the level of obtaining Hasanah (rewards) and to avoid the evil deeds. This holy month of Ramadan is also a chance to do a lot of good deeds and giving charity, whereas Zakat is a must in this holy month, and Allah SWT multiplies the reward as well as each and every sincere worship and good deeds are doubled in this holy month. 

One of phenomenon that increase during the month of Ramadan is shopping and purchases for what persons need during this month or on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr Al-Mubarak, including buying clothes and collectibles, or even getting finance to cover the increasing needs in our modern life. With the spread of the types, services and products of finance that one of us needs to meet the needs of his/ her family in housing, treatment, education, acquiring means of transport, new devices and etc., several and logic questions come into mind concerning the opinion of the jurists and Islamic scholars regarding these services and products and their compliance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia. 

Based on the foregoing, many questions are raised concerning the legitimacy of the Sales & Trade, especially for concepts such as: Tawarruq, Murabaha Sale, Ijara sale, bargaining sale and barter sale and the rules of each concept and the differences between them, whereas they have names that many of us are not aware why they have given such names, their nature and the reasons of the legitimacy in Islamic sales.

Before we discuss these concepts briefly, which are sufficient to eliminate any ambiguity, doubt, or confusion  concerning these concepts or remove any overlap between them, we start with the definition of Sale, whereas the Islamic scholars unanimously agreed on its legitimacy and it is a  method of acquisition, as well as the wisdom requires this transaction because it is extremely required as people need it to get the commodities, food and drink and exchange what they have with each other and there is no way to do that except by buying and selling.

According to the Sharia rules, the sale is divided into many types, mainly:

A- Effective Sale: it is the sale that shall completely take place and shall not include any rights to annul, as if I say: I sold this garment to you for ten riyals, and the buyer accepts.

B- Non-Effective Sale: it is the sale that contains the right to annul, as if I say: I sold this garment for ten riyals and the buyer says that: I accept provided that I had the right to annul for three days, for example.

C- Suspended Sale: Relating to the right of third parties, for example when someone sells the property of another person without permission.

D- Valid Sale: the sale is valid and correct in terms of rules and form and not related to the right of third parties and there is no right to annul and it shall be effective and executed immediately.

E- Invalid Sale: the sale that its terms and are not applied and invalid in terms or the basic rules and form. This sale shall not be actually considered.

F- Null Sale: the sale which is correct in terms of the rules, but not form perspective, such as being offered a unlawful thing or form like selling a car owned by a person without specific definition or concluding two transactions in one. In this type, acquisition is proven by receipt through the permission of the owner, explicitly or implicitly. 

From commodity perspective, the sale is divided into four types: 

1- Absolute Sale: the most known type, that is the exchange of a commodity for cash, whereas the person can exchange with his/ her money any object he/ she needs and, like other types, he/ she does not need any restriction.  

2- Sale for Delivery (As-Salam): also called Forward Sale. It is exchange of debt for an existing commodity, or sale of something deferred for prompt price.  

3- Exchange Sale: sale and exchange of the same kinds of prices, such as selling gold with gold, silver for silver, as well as selling one on them for the other.   

4- Barter Sale: Act of trading goods or services without the use of money, and for its validity, it is required to be equal in the exchange.   

According to the method to define the price, the sale is divided into three types: 

1- Bargaining Sale: the sale in which capital is not mentioned, selling without mentioning the first price. 

2- Bidding Sale by Increase: Where the seller offers commodity in the market and the buyers commonly make bids, then the commodity is sold to the one who offers the highest price.

Bidding Sale by Increase corresponds to Bidding Sale by Decrease, where the buyer offers to buy a certain commodity, then sellers compete in offering to sell at a lower price, and the sale is awarded to the one who is satisfied with the lowest price. although Jurists did not talk in the past about this type of sale, but what applies to Bidding Sale shall apply to it.

3- Trust Sale: the sale in which the price is determined as the capital, or more or less, it is called the Trust Sale because the seller is insured to tell the capital. It is three types:

A- Murabaha Sale: the sale of the commodity at the same price as the seller purchased, with an increase in profit at a known and agreed rate. 

B- Resale at Cost Price: selling the commodity at the same price as the seller purchased, without any decrease or increase 

C- Sale at loss: selling the commodity at the same price as the seller purchased, with putting a known amount of the price, i.e. at a specified loss.   

Tawarruq Sale and its rules

According to the jurists, Tawarruq is when a person buys a commodity on credit, then sells it for cash to a another person rather than the seller, for less amount than what he/she bought it, to get cash immediately. It is a specific financing tool, through which the customer get the needed cash, after several sale transactions

The process of Tawarruq is carried out by the financing entity that buys commodities from the supplier (referred to as the first sale), then it sells them to the customer (the second sale), and the latter sells those commodities to another supplier to get cash (the third sale).

When carrying out Tawarruq via online platform, a financial broker sells the commodities (instead of the supplier) to the financing entity (the first sale), and another financial broker buys the commodities from the customer (the third sale). The customer can authorize someone else to sell the commodities on his behalf, and it is preferable that the representative is other than the seller in the second sale (the financing entity).

Is Tawarruq legitimate?

Tawarruq is permissible in Islamic Sharia if sale terms and conditions apply in each and every type of the three sales include the stages referred to above, in addition to the condition of selling the commodities to the buyer rather than the first supplier, in the third sale, which means that Tawarruq becomes permissible if it includes one of the conditions of sale. , or one of its elements, such as the absence of commodities, or non-receipt of the commodities, actually or impliedly, before the sale, or selling the commodities to the first supplier.

How do we ensure that Tawarruq meets the Sharia requirements?

Upon concluded, each sale in the process of Tawarruq, shall be documented with the supporting documents indicating the existence of commodities, transfer of ownership, proof of receipt, even impliedly, and the other requirements; in addition to carrying out a Sharia audit process during the transaction stages.

Does Tawarruq include all commodities?

All commodities are valid for Tawarruq process, except for gold and silver. Metals, rice, cement and investment portfolios are "shares" used in this type of sales.

What is the difference between Tawarruq and Murabaha Sale?

Tawarruq is a certain financing tool to get cash, whereas the Murabaha sale is often a contract between the financing entity and the customer (the second sale).

Murabaha Sale and its rules

As mentioned, Murabaha is a type of sale processes that Muslims used in the past, and books of jurisprudence (fiqh) explained its forms and conditions. Idiomatically, the jurists defined Murabaha with many definitions, all of which gives one meaning, which is the sale of commodities at the same first price, with an increase agreed upon between the seller and the buyer, meaning that the buyer, instead of bargaining over the price until it reaches the price he is satisfied with, only bargains over the seller’s profit above the price, and the seller is trusted in defining the amount of the commodity, I.e. Murabaha sale is the sale of the commodity at the same first price at which the seller purchased it, with a profit increase at known and agreed rate.

Murabaha Sale has specific terms, mainly:

1- In Murabaha, it is necessary to know the first price at which the commodity was purchased, and to know the profit increase.

2- The price, in the first contract, shall not be equivalent to the same type of usury money, whereas the increase here will be usury not a profit. 

3- The first contract shall be eligible, if it is illegible, Murabaha Sale shall be no longer permissible in Islamic Sharia.  

Murabaha Sale became known since Islamic banks started to use it, and it has a considerable importance in its transactions, as it reached 95% of the transactions in a wide sector in some financing entities. Also, the common formula about it in the Islamic banks is the Murabaha formula for the purchase order, meaning that the customer applies to the bank requiring it to purchase the required commodity, with the description specified by the customer, and on the basis of the promise made by him to actually purchase that commodity as Murabaha at the ratio they agree upon, and he pays the price in installments according to his capabilities. .

Then, we have Ijara contract, which is the most related form of sale through which leasing with a promise to acquisition, It is a contract based on a known intended benefit that can be used and permitted in exchange for a known consideration. It has two types: the first type is the benefits of objectives, such as renting lands and houses, and the second type is the benefit of work, such as renting a car to be used.

The Tayseer Arabian Company succeeded in using the Ijara contract, achieving the interests of its customers and operating its capital, and thus achieving the interests of the society. This method was known as Ijara Ending in Ownership (Ijara Muntahia Bittamleek), and it is one of the important financing methods provided by Al-Tayseer for financing its customers, whereas it acquires assets to place them at the disposal of its customers, to meet their benefits for consideration, and the ownership of the asset is achieved at the end of the Ijara contract via an independent document, based on promise to do so from the beginning.