722 – Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ being asked about purchasing fresh dates with dried dates. He said, ‘Do fresh dates lose weight when they dry?’ They replied, ‘Yes.’ So he forbade that practice.”
It was narrated by the Five, and declared authentic by Ibn al-Madīnī, Ibn Ḥibbān, and al-Ḥākim.⦗1⦘

Grade of the ḥadith: authentic (ṣaḥīḥ).
Al-Talkhīṣ states: It was transmitted by Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, the compilers of the Sunan, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Ḥākim, al-Dāraqutnī, and al-Bayhaqī, all through the narration of Zayd ibn ʿAyyāsh, who asked Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and the ḥadith was mentioned.
A number of scholars—among them al-Ṭaḥāwī, al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Ḥazm, and ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq—considered it defective because the status of Zayd ibn ʿAyyāsh is unknown. Yet Imām Mālik relied on him, and al-Dāraqutnī said, “He is trustworthy and reliable,” as did Ibn al-Madīnī, al-Tirmidhī, al-Ḥākim, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Mundhirī, and Ibn al-Jawzī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ relates that al-Mundhirī said, “Two trustworthy narrators reported from Zayd.” Mālik accepted his narration despite his well-known stringency, and both al-Tirmidhī and al-Ḥākim authenticated the report, the latter stating, “I know of no one who spoke against him.” Accordingly, the ḥadith is sound, given the unanimous recognition of Mālik’s authority and the reliability of everything he transmits—especially the traditions of the people of Medina, in which no unsound report is found. Furthermore, it is supported by a corroborating mursal narration that al-Bayhaqī recorded from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salamah, a strong mursal that reinforces this musnad report.