It is therefore clear that the reason for the prohibition is not that the fruit was nonexistent, for even after signs of ripeness have appeared and it is safe from blight, it continues to grow new parts that did not exist when the contract was concluded. Nor is the objective to ensure safety from rare calamities, for that is impossible. It may still be struck by what Allah related concerning the people of the garden, who “swore that they would surely harvest its fruit in the morning, without making any exception” [al-Qalam: 17–18] [AL-QALAM 17, 18], or by what He mentioned in Surah Jonah: “Then, when the earth has taken on its adornment and become beautified, and its people think that they have full power over it, Our command comes upon it by night or by day, and We reduce it to stubble, as though it had not flourished the day before” [Jonah: 24] [JONAH]. Rather, the objective is that the danger of recurring blight should have passed. Such blight generally strikes crops before the grain hardens and fruit before signs of ripeness appear; after that, blight is rare compared with what occurs beforehand. Moreover, if its sale remained prohibited beyond this point, there would be no time at which it could lawfully be sold before reaching complete ripeness. Yet selling fruit on the tree after it has fully ripened is impracticable, because it does not all ripen at once, while requiring its owner to harvest it would cause harm greater than the harm posed by uncertainty.

It thus becomes clear that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—gave precedence to the benefit of permitting a needed sale over the harm of slight uncertainty. This accords with the principles of wisdom with which he—peace and blessings be upon him—was sent and which he taught his nation.

Anyone who rigidly applies an analogy conceived in his own mind, without considering the weightier countervailing factor that precludes its operative cause, will corrupt much of religion and make both his reasoning and his religion unduly restrictive.

Furthermore, it is narrated in Sahih Muslim from Abū Rāfi: “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—borrowed a young camel from a man. When some camels given in charity arrived, he instructed Abū