the fruit, since I have no right to it. You have the choice: water your fruit if you wish, or leave it.” If, however, the recipient becomes entitled to the fruit only when it ripens—according to the view that it remains the donor’s property until then, even if the recipient has taken possession of it—its zakat must fall to the recipient, just as watering it does.

The rationale for distinguishing between the two on grounds of juristic preference is that watering benefits the orchard whether the fruit survives or is lost. Watering therefore falls to its owner—the donor—even if the recipient has become entitled to the fruit and is liable for its zakat. Legal analogy, however, does not support this, because the orchard’s owner is entitled to refrain from watering it, even if it perishes.

Section

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted a concession permitting the sale of an ʿariyyah for its estimated equivalent. Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, related in his Muwattaʾ, from Nāfiʿ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Zayd ibn Thābit:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ permitted the holder of an ʿariyyah to sell it for its estimated equivalent.”

He also related, from Dāwūd ibn al-Husayn, from Sufyān, the freedman of Ibn Abī Ahmad, from Abū Hurayrah:

“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ permitted the sale of ʿarāyā for their estimated equivalent, in quantities below five wasqs, or amounting to five wasqs.”

Dāwūd was uncertain whether he had said five wasqs or less than five wasqs.

The statements that he ﷺ “permitted the holder of an ʿariyyah to sell it for its estimated equivalent” and “permitted the sale of ʿarāyā for their estimated equivalent” indicate that the term ʿariyyah denotes the donated fruit, not the trees whose fruit was donated. Those who maintain that ʿariyyah denotes the trees whose fruit was donated understand “permitted the sale of ʿarāyā” to mean “permitted the sale of the fruit of the ʿarāyā.” Thus, the governing noun is omitted and its dependent noun takes its place, as in the words of the Most High:

“And ask the town” [Joseph: 82],

meaning its inhabitants. This is common in Arabic usage, but it is figurative. Interpreting speech literally takes precedence over interpreting it figuratively.