when needed, even though this falls within usury, which is graver than a sale involving uncertainty. This is the “principle of Islamic law”: securing the greater of two benefits by forgoing the lesser, and averting the greater of two harms by accepting the lesser. Selling produce protected by its skin or shell—such as grapes, pomegranates, bananas, and walnuts and almonds with a single shell—is permissible by agreement of the imams.
He was asked:
A man purchased twenty-six feddans of taro from another man for nine thousand dirhams. The seller concluded the sale with him, and the purchaser began digging up the taro. Then another man came and offered a thousand dirhams more. The seller accepted the higher offer and expelled the first purchaser. The first purchaser then outbid the second by five hundred dirhams, took possession of the taro, dug up a boatload, sold it and remitted its price to the seller. Later, he was outbid again, whereupon the seller expelled him and recorded the taro in the name of the higher bidder. Is the first purchase valid, or the second?
He replied:
Praise be to Allah. What this seller has done is impermissible by the consensus of the Muslims; indeed, he deserves severe punishment. For the sale of taro and other produce concealed underground, such as carrots, turnips and the like, is either permissible according to one of