Is a subsequent valid contract valid if the transferor believed the initial invalid contract was valid?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Gifts and Donations
Primary text
If the seller believed the first transaction was valid when making the second disposition, there are two legal opinions. One view asserts the validity of the second contract because the disposition affected property rightfully owned and met all conditions. The second view invalidates the second contract, arguing that an act performed while believing it to be fundamentally flawed (like praying believing oneself to be in a state of major impurity when one is pure) results in invalidity.
Supporting text
The basis for these two opinions is drawn from cases where a person performs an act believing a necessary condition is absent, such as a person engaging in intimate contact intended for divorce believing the woman to be a non-wife, only for her to be revealed as his actual wife, or emancipating someone believed to be free who turns out to be his slave; in these latter cases, there are differing narrations regarding the effectiveness of the divorce or emancipation.