The second [subsidiary issue] concerns preparing nabīdh from two different ingredients—for example, half-ripe dates with fully ripe dates, or dried dates with raisins.

As for the first issue, they unanimously agree that preparing nabīdh in leather waterskins is permissible, but they differ about other vessels. Ibn al-Qāsim reports from Mālik that he disliked preparing it in pumpkin-skins (dubbāʾ) and in pitch-coated jars (muzaffat), but not in anything else. Al-Thawrī disliked its preparation in the dubbāʾ, the ḥantam, the naqīr, and the muzaffat. Abū Ḥanīfah and his colleagues held that there is no objection to preparing nabīdh in any kind of container whatsoever.

The reason for their disagreement is the conflicting reports on the matter. From the route of Ibn ʿAbbās there is a sound ḥadīth prohibiting preparation in the four vessels that al-Thawrī deemed objectionable. Mālik relates in the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Ibn ʿUmar that

“The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—forbade preparing nabīdh in the dubbāʾ and the muzaffat.”

In the ḥadīth of Jābir, transmitted through Sharīk from Simāk, the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“I had forbidden you to prepare [nabīdh] in the dubbāʾ, the ḥantam, the naqīr, and the muzaffat; so prepare it, yet I do not permit anything intoxicating.”

Likewise, in the ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, which Mālik also records in the Muwaṭṭaʾ, he—peace and blessings be upon him—said:

“I had forbidden you to prepare nabīdh; therefore prepare it, and every intoxicant is unlawful.”

Whoever considers that the earlier, now-abrogated prohibition related specifically to preparing nabīdh in these vessels—since no other prior prohibition is known here—concludes that preparing nabīdh in any receptacle is permissible. But whoever views the abrogated ruling as an absolute ban on preparing nabīdh maintains that the prohibition concerning these particular vessels remains.

Thus, the one who relies on the report of Ibn ʿUmar recognizes the two vessels mentioned therein, whereas the one who relies on the report of Ibn ʿAbbās counts the four, because it contains additional detail; and the clash between the two reports is only a matter of inference by implication (dalīl al-khiṭāb).

In Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim there is a prohibition against preparing nabīdh in the ḥantam, and in the same collection there is a concession allowing it provided the vessel is not pitch-coated.