SHĀFI'I'S REASONING 327

the return. It is a fundamental part of our doctrine that it is inadmissible to sell a slave girl with the stipulation that the buyer must not re-sell her, because the seller by this stipulation withholds from the buyer part of the full rights of property, whereas it is fitting that, if he transfers the rights of property for a consideration which he receives, he should transfer the full rights of property. Equally, the stipulation of the right of option constitutes a diminution and a denial of the full rights of property. Were it not for a tradition, a sale with the right of option ought to be invalid on principle, and we consider sales invalid for less than this. But as the Prophet laid down an option of three days from the conclusion of the sale in the case of the muṣarrāt,¹ and as it is related that he accorded to Ḥabbān b. Munqidh an option of three days with regard to things he bought,² we accept the right of option as far as the Prophet laid it down but no farther, because the Prophet himself did not go farther. His recognition of the option is presumably in the nature of setting an extreme limit to it. For the fact that an animal is muṣarrāt is sometimes known after it has been milked for the first time within twenty-four hours, and beyond doubt within two days; if the option in this case were accorded so that one could know for certain whether the animal was a muṣarrāt—which is a defect—it is more likely that it would have been accorded for as long as it takes to find out, whether it were long or short, just as the option is accorded in the case of any other defect whenever the buyer discovers it without a limitation, whether the time taken to find out be long or short. And if the option had been accorded to Ḥabbān so that he could consult others, he might have consulted them on the spot or shortly afterwards, or he might have postponed the consultation for a long time. Tradition therefore shows that an option of three days is the extreme limit of an option, and we must not exceed it; whoever exceeds it makes a stipulation which in our opinion makes the sale invalid.'³