Constructive possession (qabd hukmi) is the process or act or state of a party/ person having the legal rights over an asset, without having its in his/ her actual possession. On the other hand, physical possession is the actual possession of an asset in addition to the legal rights to control that asset.
For example, in a murabahah contract (aqd al-murabahah), the seller is required to have physical or constructive possession of the object of murabahah for the contract to be valid and permissible from a shari’ah point of view. Constructive possession is to be proven based on a material evidence of effective transfer of ownership or receipts such as warehouse receipts.
