330—The same applies to all other trees when their fruit is already visible.
331—Likewise, the same ruling applies when a crop that is harvested only once has emerged.
332—If it can be harvested repeatedly, however, the roots belong to the buyer, while the standing crop at the time of sale belongs to the seller.
333—The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade the sale of fruit until its ripeness becomes evident; he forbade both the seller and the buyer1.
334—When he was asked how its ripeness becomes evident, he replied, “When the danger of blight has passed.” In another wording: “When it turns red or yellow” 2.
335—He also forbade the sale of grain3 until it hardens. This was narrated by the compilers of the Sunan collections4.
336—He said: “If you sell your brother some fruit and it is struck by a blight, it is not lawful
(1) Reported by al-Bukhārī (vol. 3, p. 351) and Muslim (no. 1536).
(2) Reported by al-Bukhārī (vol. 3, p. 351) and Muslim (no. 1536).
(3) The passage from “the sale of fruit” through “the sale of grain” is omitted from manuscript “A.”
(4) Reported by Ahmad (vol. 3, p. 221), Ibn Mājah (no. 2217), al-Hākim (vol. 2, p. 19), who declared it authentic, Abu Dāwūd (no. 3371), and al-Tirmidhī (no. 1228), who classified it as *hasan gharīb*. The shaykh held that fruit may not be sold before signs of ripeness appear, nor may crops be sold before their grain hardens, even to the owner of the land or the trees themselves, because both the hadith and its underlying rationale are general. If, however, the produce is sold together with the land or trees, it is included as an ancillary part of the sale, since the contract covers both. *Al-Mukhtārāt al-Jaliyya*, p. 76.