Short selling has several issues. Brokers usually charge a fee for the borrowed asset (stock), this fee is clearly usury/interest. Also, it creates risk with the hope of gaining money, without any corresponding value being created. Shorting exposes three parties to the risk of a stock or asset (the shorter, the original owner, and the new owner), compared to a regular trade where risk is transferred from one party to another, and no new risk is created. I found this article[0] that goes into details about the dangers of short selling (see the sections on margins and overshooting specifically). Salam sales do not have those issues.

Furthermore, goods for which the quality and quantity cannot be specified cannot be sold by Salam contracts, as per the Hadith in my previous post (e.g. gems or precious stones since each is considered different), and I've seen at least one source that also exempts stocks from being tradable in Salam contracts due to high uncertainty (called Gharar sales in Islam, also prohibited).

As far as selling Salam contracts before they are fulfilled, I do not know. What sorts of issues or benefits can result from selling such a contract before it is fulfilled?

Edit: I think it is prohibited as well, as now the buyer is selling something that he does not yet possess. So you have the same item being sold multiple times before taking delivery. This narration should be the basis of prohibition:

> The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade selling goods in the place where they were bought until the merchants had moved them to their own location.

> Apologies for all the questions this is fascinating

No problem! I'll do my best to answer what I know.

[0] https://practicalislamicfinance.com/2020/02/17/short-selling...