Sifa (the attribute: its meaning for grammarians, jurists and usulis, its role in sale and salam, and the effect of an unmet description)

الصِّفَة

In language sifa is the adornment or description of a thing. For grammarians it is a noun showing some state of a thing; for jurists it is that the thing described is so fixed that after the description only a slight variation remains; for the usulis it is the restriction of a word with several meanings by another, specific word, which is not a condition or a limit. Description enters the conditions of salam and of sale on description: if the described quality is not found, the buyer has the option of the lost attribute, and the attribute has no share of the price, since it follows the contract without being named. In usul al-fiqh the concept of the attribute is the attaching of a ruling to a thing by one of its qualities, as in the saying that a free-grazing flock owes zakat. ^{1 2}