731 – Ibn ʿAbbās (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported: “When the Prophet ﷺ arrived in Madinah, the people there were contracting advance-payment sales (salaf/salam) in fruits for a year or two. He said, ‘Whoever pays in advance for dates should do so for a specified measure, a specified weight, and a specified term.’” Agreed upon.

Al-Bukhārī adds: “Whoever pays in advance for anything….” ⦗1⦘

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• “…while they were paying in advance (yuslifūn)”: the wāw is circumstantial. Yuslifūn is read with a ḍamma on the yāʾ and comes from salaf, which is the same as salam. Al-Azharī said: salam and salaf are synonymous among the Arabs, except that salaf can also mean a loan, whereas salam is restricted to this type of sale, which is unanimously permitted.
• “a year (al-sanata)”: accusative either because the preposition ilā (“up to a year”) is implied, or as a cognate accusative meaning “a year’s advance sale.”
• “Whoever pays in advance for dates (tamr)”: transmitted with the tāʾ and also with the thāʾ.
• “for a specified measure”: in some versions of the two Ṣaḥīḥs the wording is “a specified measure and a specified weight,” meaning measurement is required for what is measured and weight for what is weighed.