from the skin, and people take it. This blood that has collected in this pouch is musk. Al-Mutanabbi said:

If you surpass all people, though you are one of them,
Then musk is but part of the gazelle’s blood.

The author’s view is that it is not valid to sell musk while it is still in its musk pod. This is the position of the school, because its amount is unknown. Musk is expensive: if you estimate it by weight, the pod may be thick; and if you estimate it by volume, the same problem remains.

The second view is that it may validly be sold in its musk pod, because this pod is a natural container, like the peel of a pomegranate. It is known that a pomegranate may be sold with its peel, even though it may contain a great deal of pith or only a little. Moreover, experts can identify it, whether by touch and pressing it or by other means. They say that it is naturally concealed, and people have bought and sold it in every age and land without objection. Thus it may likewise be said that musk in its pod is naturally concealed. This is the view adopted by Ibn al-Qayyim. It is naturally concealed, like watermelon, pomegranate, and similar produce. This is the correct view.

His statement, “nor date pits within their dates”: if a person has dates in a container, and someone else says to him, “Sell me the pits of these dates,” and he replies, “Yes, I sell you the pits,” the sale is invalid, because it is like a fetus in the womb. It is valid to sell dates together with their pits, just as it is valid to sell a pregnant animal together with its fetus; but it is not valid to sell the pits within the dates, because they are unknown, and this falls under a sale involving excessive uncertainty. Date pits differ even within a single variety: one may eat a date and find a large pit in it, while one may eat another date of the same variety and find a small pit in it. Therefore, it is not valid to sell date pits within dates.