Once the fruit’s soundness has appeared, blight is encountered only rarely. Were the risk of blight not to remain with the seller in a sale that stipulates leaving the produce on the tree, no such calamity would be anticipated at all and the stipulation itself would be invalid.

The Ḥanafīs, however, do not allow the sale of fruit on condition that it be left hanging, and—­as noted earlier—­they read an unrestricted contract as requiring immediate picking. This, in their view, accords with the purport of the ḥadīth. Their proof is that the very act of selling a commodity entails handing it over; otherwise the transaction is tainted by gharar (impermissible uncertainty). For that reason, they hold that tangible goods may not be sold for deferred delivery. The majority of jurists, on the other hand, treat the sale of fruit as an exception to that general rule, since fruit cannot all dry up at once.

Thus the Kufan jurists diverged from the majority regarding the sale of fruit in two respects:

1. They permit its sale before it blossoms.
2. They forbid stipulating that it remain on the tree after blossoming, or leaving it there by virtue of an unqualified contract.
   Their disagreement on the first point is sharper than on the second—that is, on requiring immediate harvesting even after the fruit has blossomed. Yet their first position is the more plausible, for it seeks to reconcile the two previously cited ḥadīths of Ibn ʿUmar, and the same view is reported from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and Ibn al-Zubayr.

As for the “appearance of soundness” after which the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) allowed the sale, it is the stage at which the dates (busr) turn yellow and the grapes darken (if they are of a variety that darkens); in short, when the fruit displays signs of maturity. This is the position of the jurists of the various centres of learning, relying on Mālik’s report from Ḥumayd, from Anas. Asked about the Prophet’s words “until it blossoms,” Anas replied, “until it reddens.” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is also reported to have said: “He forbade the sale of grapes until they blacken, and of grain until it hardens.”

According to Mālik’s narration, Zayd ibn Thābit would not sell his fruit until the Pleiades had risen—twelve nights into the month of Iyyār, i.e., May—­and the same is narrated from Ibn ʿUmar. When ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar was asked about the Prophet’s statement that he forbade selling fruit “until it is safe from blight,” he answered, “That is the time when the Pleiades rise.”

Abū Hurayrah likewise relates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “When the star rises in the morning, blights are lifted from the people of that land.”

Ibn al-Qāsim transmits from Mālik that there is no objection to selling an orchard even if its own fruit has not yet blossomed, provided the neighbouring orchards have blossomed and the season is one in which blight is no longer feared—meaning, God knows best, the rising of the Pleiades. Nevertheless, his well-known opinion is that an orchard may not be sold until its own fruit shows the bloom, and some have said that once blossoming occurs the rising of the Pleiades is no longer taken into account.

In summary, scholars hold three views on the appearance of soundness:

1. That it is the blossoming (izha’); this is the well-known view.
2. That it is the rising of the Pleiades, even if no blossoming is visible in the orchard at the time of sale.
3. That both conditions must be met.