Rethinking the Time Constraint in Option of Conditions

Civil law in the field of options refers to a kind of option called option of condition. This option is the result of a corollary condition wherein the parties to the transaction turn it on or off for the sole purpose of measuring their profits and losses. Article 399 stipulates that the cancellation authority of the transaction must be determined based on agreed certain conditions within agreed time constraint, and the guarantee of breach of it is the annulment of contract (Article 401). The base of the article should be traced in the commentaries and explanations which exist in the famous prophetic hadith(tradition); i.e., نهی النبی عن بیع الغرر [nahyannabi ’an bay’il-gharar[1]][2]. Foqah (faqihs) disagree on the concept of the word "gharar", the most accurate of which is uncertainty or unknowingness in the good itself or in the thing which is going to be purchased, and not in other things related to the transaction. Relying on Articles 216, 563, 564, 694, 761, and 766 of the Civil Code and the opinions of foqaha and jurists, based on the tolerance of uncertainty in contracts, they can be categorized as ’oqoud-e moghabeneh[3] against ’oqoud-e mosameheh[4], ’oqoud-e mohabati[5], and the like. Therefore, by disclosing the basis of Articles 399 and 401 of the Civil Code, some contracts that are in the category of ’oqoud-e mosameheh, that is, they are based on amicability or bilateral benefit (such as peace-based contracts) and specially they fall out of the scope of the aforementioned hadith and other contractual provisions in whose essence there are risk, one can create condition of unlimited option