“Signs of ripeness in one kind of fruit—such as apples or almonds—count as ripeness for all other kinds of fruit.”

Those who permit any of these sales reason that practical need calls for this: selling some of the produce but not the rest leads to difficulties in shared ownership and competing claims to possession. This is the rationale of those who distinguish between a single orchard and several orchards.

Those who treat the two alike say that the purpose is to ensure safety from blight, and this is achieved once the fruit begins to ripen.

Those who prohibit this reason that the Prophet’s words (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), “until they show signs of ripeness,” require signs of ripeness to appear in all the fruit.

The point of reviewing these positions is this: if someone permits the sale of an orchard’s crop of a single kind because some of it shows signs of ripeness, his position implies, by analogy, that the produce of a melon-and-cucumber plot may be sold once some of it shows signs of ripeness. The produce that does not yet exist in such a plot is analogous to the parts of a fruit that do not yet exist. Indeed, the practical need is greater here, since separating trees for sale is easier than separating individual melons, long cucumbers, and cucumbers. Even if distinguishing one picking from another were not difficult, it would still be impossible to establish a consistent boundary between them, since people’s judgments about this vary.

The point is that Ahmad’s foundational principles entail agreement with Mālik on these questions, as has indeed been reported from him in some of his answers, or deduced by his followers from his principles.