In Arabic aqd mu’awadhah, it is a type of compensatory contract whereby one party receives remuneration/ consideration in return for what he presents the other party with. Such contracts include sale, ijarah, salam, murabahah, ju’alah and wakalah contracts. For contracts to be “commutative”, consideration or countervalues should be transferred between the two contracting parties. The sale contracts fall into different categories in terms of the object and the price.

Classified according to object, sale contracts include: barter sale, exchange of currencies, spot sale, salam sale (immediate payment and deferred delivery), credit sale (deferred payment sale), and absolute sale. Classification according to price includes the following contracts: murabahah sale (cost-plus sale), tawliyah sale (resale at cost), wadhi’ah sale (resale at a price less than cost) and musawamah sale (sale without mentioning the original cost).

It is worth noting that trust-based sales or honesty sales (amanah sales) include: murabahah sale, tawliyah sale, and wadhi’ah sale (musawamah sale is a subcategory by its own).