He was also asked:

Concerning someone who owns grapevines whose fruit cannot be made into raisins, and who does not leave the fruit until harvest time: how should he pay its tithe—in fresh or dried fruit? If he pays it in dried fruit, he will be paying it from produce other than that of his orchard.

He replied:

As for grapes that cannot be made into raisins, it is permissible—and preferable—to pay their tithe in raisins, in the amount that would have been due had those grapes been capable of becoming raisins. This undoubtedly discharges his obligation. The owner is not required to pay from the very property on which the obligation falls, either in this case or in any other. Rather, anyone who possesses gold, silver, trade goods, grain or fruit subject to the tithe, or livestock subject to zakat, and pays the expressly prescribed amount due from other property, thereby discharges his obligation. How much more so, then, in this case?

If he pays the tithe in grapes, there are two views within Ahmad’s school:

The first, which is Ahmad’s expressly stated position, is that this does not discharge his obligation.

The second is that it does discharge his obligation. This is the view of Judge Abū Ya‘lā and of most scholars, and it is the stronger view.