firm and no longer yields when pressed. “And when the fruit begins to ripen”: in the case of dates, this is when they turn red or yellow; and in the case of grapes, it is when they become juicy and sweet—that is, instead of being hard, they become soft and full of juice, and instead of being sour, they become sweet.

Once the grain has hardened and the fruit has begun to ripen, zakah becomes obligatory; before then, it is not obligatory.

One consequence of this is that if ownership passes to another person before zakah becomes due, it is not due from the former owner, but from the one to whom it passed. Thus, if the owner dies before zakah becomes due—that is, before the grain hardens or the fruit begins to ripen—zakah is not due from him; rather, it is due from the heir. Likewise, if he sells date palms bearing fruit that has not yet begun to ripen, or sells land containing crops whose grain has not yet hardened, the zakah is due from the purchaser, because he removed them from his ownership before zakah became obligatory.

Another consequence is that if the crops perish—even through his own act, such as harvesting the crop before its grain has hardened or cutting the fruit before it begins to ripen—then no zakah is due from him, because this occurred before zakah became obligatory. However, the scholars said that if he does so in order to evade zakah, it becomes obligatory upon him as a punishment contrary to his intention, because whoever resorts to a legal stratagem to evade an obligation remains bound by it.

“Zakah does not become definitively due until they are placed in the threshing floor. If they perish before that, without any negligence on his part, it is waived. …”

His statement, “Zakah does not become definitively due until they are placed in the threshing floor. If they perish before that, without any negligence on his part, it is waived,” means that the obligation of zakah does not become definitive until they are placed in the threshing floor.