Chapter on Remitting Payment in the Event of Calamities (al-jawā’iḥ)

The word jawā’iḥ is the plural of jā’iḥah and denotes a blight that attacks fruit and destroys it, taken from a root meaning “to eradicate completely.”

If fruit is sold after its soundness has become apparent—at which point the sale is permissible—and it is then struck by a heavenly calamity that ruins it, that calamity is defined as one beyond human control: wind, intense heat, drought, rain, hail, locusts, and other overwhelming disasters that descend on the crop and destroy it. Should such fruit have been sold and the purchaser be unable to take possession before the calamity occurs, he may return to the seller and recover the price he paid. This is based on the hadith of Jābir (may Allah be pleased with him): “The Prophet ﷺ commanded that al-jawā’iḥ be waived,” recorded by Muslim. The hadith shows that the ruined fruit remains the property of the seller and that he is not entitled to any of its price. If the entire crop is destroyed, the purchaser recovers the whole price; if only part is lost, he recovers from the seller the portion of the price that corresponds to what has perished, for the hadith is general in its wording,