This article examines the Islamic jurisprudential doctrine of unforeseen circumstances (na?ariyyat al-?ur?f al-??ri?ah) and its implications for the Salam contract, a deferred-delivery sale whose performance is inherently exposed to changes in prices, supply conditions, production capacity, and access to markets. The study adopts a qualitative doctrinal and analytical approach. It examines classical juristic discussions of calamities (jaw??i?), excuses (a?dh?r), hardship, contractual binding force, and related legal maxims, along with modern jurisprudential treatments and the Islamic Fiqh Council's resolution on unforeseen circumstances and contractual obligations. The analysis argues that the contemporary expression “doctrine of unforeseen circumstances” is not alien to Islamic jurisprudence; rather, it provides a modern conceptual formulation for a body of established juristic principles concerned with removing hardship, preventing harm, achieving justice, and restoring a fair contractual balance. The study further demonstrates that Salam may fall within the scope of this doctrine where performance is deferred, an exceptional and generally unforeseeable event occurs after contracting, its effects cannot reasonably be avoided, and performance becomes exceptionally burdensome without resulting from the debtor’s negligence. In such circumstances, judicial or adjudicative intervention may, subject to the applicable Shar??ah rules and contractual terms, include reasonable adjustment of obligations, temporary suspension or deferment, equitable allocation of exceptional loss, or termination of the unperformed portion of the contract. The article contributes by clarifying the conditions that distinguish genuine hardship from ordinary commercial risk and by proposing a structured framework for applying the doctrine to Salam transactions in contemporary Islamic finance.
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