694 – Ibn Masʿūd (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “Whoever purchases a ewe whose udder has been left engorged, and then returns it, must return with it one sāʿ.” Al-Bukhārī recorded the report, and al-Ismāʿīlī added the words, “of dates.” (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• muḥaffala: with ḍamma on the mīm, fatḥa on the ḥāʾ, and a doubled fāʾ; it refers to an udder in which the milk has been allowed to collect.

Points derived from the two ḥadīths

1. Islam seeks to build commercial dealings on honesty, trustworthiness, and sincere counsel. It forbids deception, enticement, and concealment, for such practices constitute fraud that breeds enmity and hatred and leads to the wrongful consumption of people’s wealth.
2. The two ḥadīths prohibit concealment by leaving the milk in the udders of livestock at the time of sale until it accumulates, so that the buyer imagines this to be the animal’s normal yield and pays more than it is really worth; the seller thus cheats and wrongs him.
3. Because the Prophet forbade this practice, it is unlawful, for it amounts to devouring people’s wealth without right.
4. The contract itself remains valid, as indicated by the words, “If he is pleased with it, he keeps it.” Nevertheless, once the buyer discovers the stratagem, he has the choice either to keep the animal or to return it, whether he realizes the fraud before or after milking.
5. If he keeps it, he does so for the agreed-upon price. If he returns it, he must also return one sāʿ of dates in compensation for the milk that was purchased while still in the udder and which he has since milked. Any milk produced after that first milking need not be compensated, for “the yield follows liability” (al-kharāj bil-ḍamān).