methods. Shaykh al-Islam said, “The scholars are unanimously agreed on this.”
3 – If food is sold juzāfan—that is, in bulk without any prior measuring—the well-known position in the school of Imām Aḥmad is that the purchaser may dispose of it before taking physical possession. They cite the statement of Ibn ʿUmar: “The Sunnah has decreed that whatever the bargain encompasses of grain already gathered belongs to the buyer,” which indicates that he is allowed to deal with it before receiving it.
The view adopted by the majority of scholars—and the second report from Aḥmad—is that, with respect to food, no distinction is to be made between a bulk sale and a measured one. This was also the opinion preferred by Shaykh al-Islam and by Ibn al-Qayyim.
4 – Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn and Ibn al-Qayyim explained that the rationale behind the prohibition of selling something before taking possession is the buyer’s inability to secure it for himself and then deliver it to a second purchaser—especially if the first seller learns that the buyer has made a profit, in which case he will try to undo the sale either by outright denial or by devising some legal pretext for cancellation.
5 – Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qāsim said: “The prohibition of selling food before the buyer takes possession of it has been transmitted through multiple, mutually reinforcing chains, with no distinction whatsoever between bulk and measured sales.”
6 – I say: Among the hadiths that establish this are:
• The report recorded by Aḥmad from Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “When you purchase something, do not sell it until you have taken possession of it.”
• The narration collected by Abū Dāwūd from Zayd ibn Thābit: “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade selling merchandise at the very place where it is bought until the traders have moved it to their own quarters.”
• What is related in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from Ibn ʿAbbās: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Whoever buys food must not sell it until he has received it in full.” Ibn ʿAbbās then added, “And I consider every commodity to fall under the same ruling.”