and when dried. If it is eaten while still in its dough-like state, before being pressed into discs, the Bedouins call it latīḥā.

– “As for me … ” etc.: Abu Saʿīd said this in reply to those who claimed that two mudd of Syrian wheat are equal to one ṣāʿ of dates and the other staples.

What may be drawn from the ḥadith
1 – The permissibility of giving Zakāt al-Fiṭr from any of these five foodstuffs: wheat, dates, barley, raisins, and aqiṭ.
2 – The wisdom of this variety—Allah knows best—is to make things easy for the givers: every region donates what it already possesses, without being charged with procuring what it lacks; likewise, the poor are provided for with the same food that the majority of people customarily eat.
3 – In the Prophet’s ﷺ lifetime Zakāt al-Fiṭr was given as one ṣāʿ of any one of these five staples. When the high-quality brown wheat from Syria came to Madinah in the time of Muʿāwiyah—he reached the city the year he performed ḥajj—he said, “I consider one mudd of wheat to be equal to two mudd of the other kinds, because of its fine quality and greater benefit.” Abu Saʿīd al-Khudrī responded, “For my part, I shall always give it exactly as I did during the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ lifetime; I will therefore never pay anything but a full ṣāʿ.” [Muslim 985]
This is the view of the three Imams—Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Aḥmad—and of the majority of scholars.
Abū Ḥanīfah held that half a ṣāʿ of wheat suffices, and Ibn al-Qayyim, in Zād al-Hādī, inclined to the strength of the evidences supporting this view. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah likewise preferred it, saying that it accords with Aḥmad’s position regarding expiations; yet the safer course is the view of the majority, which is to pay a full ṣāʿ in every case.

Difference among the scholars
Imam Aḥmad maintained that Zakāt al-Fiṭr must be paid from these five specified staples so long as they are available; if they are not, then giving something else will still be acceptable.