Abū Hanīfa likewise permits some of these things. He also permits forms of agency and partnership that al-Shāfiī does not, even permitting a mufāwada partnership (a partnership of universal delegation) and the appointment of an agent to deal with something wholly unspecified.

Al-Shāfiī said, “If a mufāwada partnership is not invalid, I know of nothing that is.”

Thus, in this area, each one’s position is broader in some respects and narrower in others. Nevertheless, al-Shāfiī has more legal principles that lead to prohibition than Abū Hanīfa does in this regard.

As for Mālik, his school offers the soundest position on this matter. He permits the sale of these things and of anything for which there is a need, or whose uncertainty is slight enough to be tolerated in contracts. He even permits cucumber patches to be sold as a whole and permits the sale of crops concealed beneath the ground, such as carrots, radishes, and the like.

Ahmad’s position is close to his in this regard, for he permits these things. According to the position explicitly reported from him, the dowry may also be an unspecified slave without qualification, one slave from among his slaves, or something similar involving no more uncertainty than the customary dowry payable to a comparable woman. Some of his followers, such as Abū al-Khattāb, permit an indeterminate choice from a specified set but not something wholly unspecified. Others, such as Abū Bakr Abd al-Azīz, agree with al-Shāfiī and permit as a dowry, as compensation in a wife-initiated divorce, or in analogous cases only what may validly be sold. According to the position explicitly reported from Ahmad, however, even greater latitude is allowed in the compensation for a wife-initiated divorce: anything that may validly be the subject of a bequest is allowed, even if it would not be valid as a dowry. This accords with Mālik’s view, though there is intra-school disagreement here that need not be discussed in this context.

Nevertheless, the position explicitly reported from Ahmad is that crops concealed beneath the ground, such as carrots and the like, may not be sold unless they have been uprooted. He said, “This uncertainty concerns something the buyer cannot see. How can he purchase it?” The position explicitly reported from him also states that snake cucumbers, cucumbers, eggplants, and similar produce may be sold only one picking at a time, and that only the produce that has appeared in cucumber and melon patches may be sold, not what