Arabic (بيع الغرر) for aleatory sale transactions or sales with uncertain outcome. In other words, it is the sale of an object which is not present or readily available and hence the buyer would not be able to determine whether it is of a good or bad quality or whether its features conform to description or not. This sale (bay’) involves a substantial element of chance or uncertainty (gharar). An example is the sale of fruits on the trees before they ripen or the sale of fish in water before the seller catches thereof.
Bay’ al-gharar is prohibited by shari’ah because it may lead to illegal appropriation of others’ wealth/property since there is a great chance that the purchaser cannot take possession of the object (subject matter of sale).
