Internet Transaction in Islam

I just came back from a weekly study circle. Interestingly, the talk presented by one of my colleagues this morning centred around Internet transaction, from Islamic Law viewpoint. To recapitulate, according to him there are generally four elements -though not all schools agree (where Hanbali only believes Sighah alone is sufficient) required in Fiqh Mu'amalat for a transaction to be considered valid:

[1] Sighah al-'aqd i.e. way by which the transaction is performed: verbal, writing, conduct etc;
[2] contracting parties: bulugh (maturity), sound, not muflis, etc;
[3] object of contract: seen, certain, available for delivery, precise description etc;
[4] determinate price: certain and price is determined in the contract.

All these four must be present when contracting took place in the majlis al-'aqd. Another conditions for majlis al-'aqd to be valid is [1] unity of time [2] unity of place for the seller and buyer.

We also discussed various forms of "khiyAr", a technical term used to express an option within a certain period after the conclusion of a bargain during which either of the parties may cancel it. The common forms of khiyAr are ten:

[1] khiyar al-shart (optional condition): where one of the parties stipulates for a period of three days or less;

[2] khiyar al-'aib (option from defect): the option of dissolving the contract on discovery of defect;

[3] khiyar al-ru' yah (option of inspection): option of rejecting the thing purchased after sight;

[4] khiyar al-ta'yin (option of determination): where a person having purchased two or three things of the same kind, stipulates a period to make his selection;

[5] khiyar al-majlis: the condition of withdrawing from the contract as long as the meetings of the parties continue

[6] khiyar al-naqd: where the seller has the option to cancel the contract if the buyer does not pay in cash up to a certain agreed date;

[7] khiyar al-ghubn, the option of the buyer to cancel the contract if the seller has sold it at a price higher than what evaluators evaluate;

[8] khiyar kashf al-hal: the buyer's option to cancel the contract on knowing the specifications of the product where a product is sold without specifications;

[9] khiyar al-qabil: the option to accept or reject a proposal, in a contract of sale, before the proposal is accepted, the option is surrendered by giving acceptance to the proposal;

[10] khiyar al-taghrir: option to rescind the contract if the seller perpetrates a fraud causing loss to the buyer.

[Source: http://islamic-world.net/economics/word/k.htm]

In conclusion, he notes that since it would be almost impossible for a transaction via internet to fulfill the conditions of majlis, hence, most contemporary scholars such as al-Qaradawi (1926-) and Abdul Razak al-Sanhuri (d.1971), are of the opinion that so long as the element of "consent" (riDa) from both parties are clearly and succintly displayed beyond reasonable doubt, and the risk of deception and ambiguities are satisfactorily minimised, then it is accepted and the transaction is valid based on the several verses of al-Qur'an such as al-Nisa' 3:29, and al-Hadith. One of the hadith, he says is in Bayhaqi:

innama al-bay'a an tarAdin

Wallahu'alam