And the zakat rate is one-tenth if the produce is watered by rainfall or naturally flowing water, and one-half of a tenth if it is watered by a water-drawing bucket or by irrigation requiring water to be lifted. If it is watered by both methods, it has been said that the predominant method is taken into consideration. It has also been said that the share attributable to each method is taken into account. If the owner and the zakat collector disagree about how it was watered, the owner’s statement is accepted.
If the zakat collector considers it advisable, as a precaution, to require the owner to swear an oath, he may do so. If the owner refuses to take the oath, he is liable only for what he admits. The various kinds of date palms are combined with one another, and likewise the various kinds of grapevines, because they all constitute a single genus. Date palms are not combined with grapevines. The holdings of a single owner are not combined—whether crops or fruit—when they are located in two different towns. This was explicitly stated in the narration of al-Athram concerning crops in various lands, with three awsuq in each land: “Should they be combined and zakat paid on them?” He replied, “Crops are unlike livestock. We have only heard that scattered holdings are combined in the case of livestock; we have not heard this regarding crops.” This means that scattered livestock holdings are combined. He also stated this explicitly in the narration of Ḥanbal.
When the fruit of date palms and grapevines is of the kind that becomes dates and raisins, their zakat is not collected until they have completely dried into dates or raisins. If it is of the kind that is harvested only while fresh or as grapes, its tenth is collected. Aḥmad made a general statement on this, regardless of whether we hold that partition merely separates an established right—which is the position explicitly stated in the narration of al-Athram—or that it constitutes a sale, since selling some of the fruit in exchange for other fruit is permissible according to us.
If one pays one-tenth of its sale price when it is sold, Aḥmad made a general statement to this effect. In the narration of Ṣāliḥ ibn Manṣūr, he said, “If someone sells a date palm, its fruit, or his crops, and the due amount based on its price is one-tenth or one-half of a tenth, he should pay it.” He likewise said in the narration of Abū Ṭālib, “If the grain heads have whitened and he sells them for one thousand dirhams, he should give one-tenth of that in charity—one hundred.” Thus, here he stated without qualification that the one-tenth is due on the sale price.
He said in the narration of Abū Dāwūd, “If he sells the fruit of a date palm, its tenth is due from the one who sold it. If he wishes, he may pay dates; and if he wishes, he may pay from the sale price.” Here he gave him a choice, and the zakat was taken as one-tenth of its price.
I found in the notes of Abū Bakr ibn Mishkāyā, quoting Abū Ḥafṣ al-Barmakī, that he said, “If a man sells the fruit, zakat is due on the sale price; but if he does not sell it, zakat is due on the fruit.” Abū Bakr said: Abū Isḥāq had stated that al-Athram had a statement that would imply the opposite of this meaning. He said: