There is, to be sure, a great deal of disagreement on the issue, yet actual practice accords with the view just stated, and that is the settled doctrine of the school.

The seller may accept the buyer’s word about how many dates have been cut or how many grapes have been dried into raisins and then calculate his zakat on that basis, provided the buyer is a Muslim. If the buyer is not a Muslim, the seller must make every reasonable effort to verify the figures himself.

Date-palms and vineyards are appraised by khars (crop estimation) once they have blossomed. If the appraisal shows that the harvest will reach five awsaq or more, the owner is left to manage it. Should a blight strike after the appraisal but before the harvest, the zakat is waived—unless what remains still amounts to five awsaq or more.

The well-known Maliki position is that the estimator must include every last bit of the dates or grapes in his assessment. Some scholars of Medina, however, reported that he may make a slight reduction, leaving something for ʿarāyā transactions, gifts, and the like; Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam also related this view.

If all the dates or raisins are of good quality, zakat is taken from that good quality; if they are all of poor quality, it is taken from the poor. It is permissible, when paying the zakat on fruits and grains, to give something of higher quality in place of lower quality, but one may not give the lower in place of the higher, nor may he discharge it in cash at a value greater than the measure owed.

Fruit sold while still green is carefully considered: it is appraised as though it were dry, and zakat is paid on that appraisal—in the form of raisins, dates, or grain. This applies to produce that will remain on the trees until it is fully ripe. If it is sold before full ripeness, some say its zakat is taken from the sale price if it is sold, or from its assessed value if it has been consumed, at the rate of one-tenth or one-half of one-tenth.