sexual relations belongs to her husband. Those who distinguish between the two cases have offered grounds explained in detail elsewhere.
The point here is that all these rulings derive from that weak principle: that a contract necessarily confers entitlement to delivery immediately upon its conclusion. The Sharia provides no evidence for this principle. Rather, taking possession of tangible property and rights of use is like receiving what is owed: sometimes the contract requires receipt immediately after its conclusion, insofar as possible, and sometimes it requires delivery to be delayed for a legitimate purpose.
Accordingly, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, permitted the sale of fruit once it begins to ripen, with the buyer entitled to leave it until it is fully ripe. The seller must water and tend it until then. This includes what does not yet exist and has not yet been created. Taking possession of such fruit is comparable to taking possession of leased property: it permits the buyer to dispose of it according to the stronger of the scholars’ two opinions, which is also the more correct of the two positions reported from Ahmad. Taking possession does not, however, transfer the risk of loss to the buyer. Rather, if the fruit perishes after it has begun to ripen, the loss is borne by the seller. This is the position of the scholars of Medina, including Mālik and others, and of the scholars of hadith, including Ahmad—may Allah be pleased with him—and others. It is also a view held conditionally by al-Shāfiʿī. It is authentically reported in Sahīh Muslim that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“If you sell fruit to your brother and a calamity strikes it, it is not lawful for you to take any of your brother’s money. On what grounds would any of you take his brother’s money without right?”
Those who disagree have no evidence from the Sharia that every taking of possession which permits disposal transfers the risk of loss, and that taking possession which does not permit