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According to the jurists of our school, losses caused by calamities are deducted from the price of fruit from all kinds of trees. This is also Mālik’s position.

Ahmad is reported to have said: “The ruling on calamities applies only to date palms.” Al-Qādī interpreted this as excluding field crops and vegetables. It is also possible that Ahmad meant that the term “calamities” in the hadith refers to date palms, while the ruling extends to other trees by analogy rather than by the explicit text, since the trees of Medina were date palms.

As for calamity losses affecting purchased field crops, there are two views, mentioned by al-Qādī and others.

The first view is that no deduction is made for calamity losses affecting them. Al-Qādī said: “This is the more fitting view, because they are sold only once they have fully matured and harvest time has arrived. Fruit, by contrast, may be sold as soon as it begins to ripen, with a long interval before harvest.”

Al-Qādī understood Ahmad’s statement, “The ruling on calamities applies only to date palms,” in accordance with this view—meaning the statement he made while in Baghdad. When asked about calamity losses affecting field crops, he replied: “The ruling on calamities applies only to date palms.”

Likewise, Mālik’s position is that no deduction is made for calamity losses affecting fruit once it has dried. Field crops are similarly excluded, because they are sold only once dry. This is also the position of those who do not allow deductions for calamity losses affecting fruit, such as Abū Hanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī in his conditional later position.

The second view is that deductions for calamity losses apply to field crops just as they do to fruit. This is the view categorically affirmed by