yellow, for it is only then that it begins to mature and becomes pleasant to eat.
2. It is likewise forbidden to sell grapes while they are still on the vine until they have darkened. Once some varieties have turned black, they are deemed ripe and enjoyable to eat.
3. It is forbidden to sell grain while it is still in the ear until it has hardened and the time for harvest and use has arrived.
4. The rationale behind prohibiting the sale of these items before they become tasty and show signs of maturity rests on three considerations:
First: Before ripening they yield no real benefit, so selling them provides the purchaser with no advantage.
Second: Complete ownership after a sale is attained only by taking possession. Leaving fruit on the tree or grain in the stalk and merely granting takhliyah (unfettered access) constitutes incomplete possession. Making the validity of the sale contingent on the ripening of the fruit and the hardening of the grain shortens the period between the contract and the buyer’s actual collection and storage of the produce.
Third: Once dates and crops begin to ripen, they are less vulnerable to scourges and heavenly afflictions, so their sale has been allowed at a time when the chance of blight is reduced.
5. The jurists state that if part of the fruit of a single tree becomes sound, then all of that species found in the orchard is considered sound, provided it is sold in one lot. It is not valid to sell produce of the same genus that has not yet ripened as a mere appendage to that which has; this is the well-known position of the school. A second report, however, holds that the appearance of soundness in some of it renders the entire genus sound. This is the view chosen by many of Imam Ahmad’s followers and is also the opinion of Malik and al-Shafiʿi.
6. If the fruit is ruined by a heavenly affliction—one beyond human control, such as wind, hail, or intense heat—the loss is borne by the seller, for takhliyah does not amount to full possession.
7. The Hanbali jurists, quoting Shaykh Mansur al-Bahuti, have said: “If a crop of wheat or the like is destroyed by a blight, the loss is borne by the purchaser; it is not treated like fruit.” Shaykh ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Saʿdi, however, stated: “The correct view is that the blight clause is applied…"