Arabic (بيع الأعوام) for a type of sale (bay’) in which the underlying object is an agricultural produce (such as dates, fruits, etc.) which will be sold for many years to come. In other words, the seller and the buyer enter into a contract whereby the latter buys from the former the produce of his land/ orchard for many years in advance so that every year or season the transaction will take place on whatever produce has materialized. For example, a contract may entail the sale of a crop of dates for five years, each year for the price (thaman) of 2,000 riyals.

Shari’ah forbids bay al-a’awam on account of excessive gharar (gharar fahish) involved; that is, it may happen that the produce does not materialize or come into existence in one or more of the years, and still the buyer pays the price and gets nothing or a less than expected amount in return.

It is also known as bay’ al-mu’awamah or bay’ al-sinin.