674 – Ibn ʿUmar (d. 73 AH) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the sale known as ḥabl al-ḥabala, a transaction the people of the pre-Islamic era used to practise: a man would purchase a camel on the condition that payment would fall due when the she-camel gave birth, and then when the offspring in her womb gave birth in turn. Agreed upon; the wording is that of al-Bukhārī (1).
Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• ḥabl: pronounced with two fatḥas. Al-Nawawī says that reading the b with sukūn is mistaken. Here it is a verbal noun referring to the embryo in its mother’s womb at the time the contract is concluded. Al-Miṣbāḥ notes that some limit the term ḥabl to human embryos; for animals and plants they use ḥaml (with an m).
• ḥablah: likewise with two fatḥas. What is meant is “the pregnancy of the pregnancy,” i.e., the birth of the embryo—the offspring of the offspring still in the she-camel’s womb. The final tāʾ marbūṭa is added for emphasis.
• Jāhiliyyah: the era before Islam, so called from the word jahil (ignorance), because rashness, quick-temperedness, and aggression prevailed among its people.
• jazūr: with an open jīm; any camel, male or female. Its plurals are juzur and jazāʾir.
• “tuntaju al-nāqah”: pronounced with ḍamma on the initial tāʾ and sukūn on the nūn; the verb is always in the passive and means “until the she-camel gives birth.” A nāqah is a female camel.
• “tuntaju allatī fī baṭnihā”: that the animal inside her womb then gives birth. The expression points to the prohibition of selling successive progeny, i.e., the offspring of her offspring.
Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
- The ḥadīth forbids the sale of ḥabl al-ḥabala, here explained as a man’s selling a camel for a deferred price.