It is also said in reply: The buyer is not liable for the milk produced while the animal was his property. Rather, he is liable for what was already in its udder. When he purchased the animal whose milk had been allowed to accumulate, it contained milk that was subsequently consumed while in his possession, and he therefore became liable for it. The Lawgiver fixed the compensation only because the original milk became mixed with the newly produced milk, so that the quantity of the original milk could no longer be determined.

It was therefore impossible to compensate for it with either its equivalent or its value. Accordingly, the Lawgiver fixed compensation that would settle the dispute, just as He fixed compensation for loss of life, bodily organs and their functions, and other prescribed amounts that settle disputes between people. When the amount rightfully due can be determined, that is what must be paid. When this is impossible, the Lawgiver prescribes the most appropriate method and the one closest to securing what is rightfully due.

Thus, He sometimes directs that estimation be used when measuring by volume or weight is impossible, allowing a probable assessment to stand in place of certain knowledge when certainty is unattainable. He also directs that lots be drawn to identify the entitled person when this is entirely unclear. At other times, He fixes compensation for what is due when there is no other way to end the dispute. The buyer’s payment of a sāʿ (a measure of volume) in compensation for the milk taken falls into this category.

There is a second account concerning this issue, related by Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Samʿānī from the spiritually discerning shaykh Yūsuf al-Hamadhānī, from the jurist Shaykh Abū Ishāq al-Shīrāzī, from Judge Abū al-Tayyib al-Tabarī, who said:

“We were sitting in the congregational mosque in Baghdad when a man from Khurasan came and asked us about an animal whose milk had been allowed to accumulate in its udder. We answered his question, citing Abū Hurayrah’s hadith as evidence, whereupon he disparaged Abū Hurayrah