nor does he need to stipulate it. If the date-palm has already been pollinated, its fruit belongs to the seller, unless the purchaser has stipulated otherwise in the contract, in which case it passes to him by virtue of that stipulation. If some of the palms have been pollinated and others not, the pollinated fruit goes to the seller and the unpollinated to the buyer, provided the two quantities are equal; but if one is markedly greater, the lesser quantity follows the greater. It is also reported that the buyer is entitled only to what has not yet been pollinated, whether small or great—this too is ascribed to Mālik.
With palms, ābār (also called tanqīḥ) means pollination: inserting the male spathe into the female. For all other fruits, the stage of initial formation and visible appearance carries in sales the same ruling as pollination does for palms. This is the view of Ibn al-Qāsim and his transmission from Mālik. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam likewise relates from Mālik that fertilization (liqāḥ) in fruits has the same status as ābār in palms.
Whoever buys land containing immature crops that have not yet shown signs of ripeness, and those crops are not mentioned in the contract, finds two reports from Mālik: one assigns them to the seller, the other to the buyer—both are attributed to him. Ibn al-Qāsim reports from Mālik that if the sale is finalized after the crop has sprouted, the standing crop belongs to the seller unless the purchaser stipulates it, just as with fruit; but if the seed has not yet taken root, it belongs to the purchaser automatically, without any need for stipulation. Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam also transmits from Mālik: if most of the crop has been fertilized—fertilization of wheat being when the kernels have formed so that, were the ear to dry, it would not spoil—then it belongs to the seller unless the purchaser stipulates it. If it has not yet reached that stage, it belongs to the purchaser. Fertilization of fruit trees is when the tree sets fruit, the naturally abortive fruitlets fall, and what is to remain stays; once this has happened, the tree is deemed fertilized and its sale is valid.