“he would eat fresh dates together with kharbaz—that is, watermelon.”

58 – “He would eat fresh dates together with kharbaz, meaning watermelon.”

It was narrated by Aḥmad (3/142–143), Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī in al-Fawāʾid (105/2), and al-Ḍiyāʾ in al-Mukhtārah (86/2) through Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, from Ḥumayd, from Anas, as a narration traced back to the Prophet ﷺ.

Al-Ḍiyāʾ also transmitted it through Aḥmad: “Aḥmad told us; Wahb ibn Jarīr told me; my father narrated to me,” with the same wording, and then added:

“It has been reported from Muhannā, the associate of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, that he said: ‘It is not authentic; it is unknown from Ḥumayd or anyone else, and is only known through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar.’”

I say—and Allah knows best—Aḥmad’s inclusion of it in al-Musnad weakens this objection, or perhaps shows that he later retracted it, since he transmitted it and left it in his book. As for the report of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaʿfar, it is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, wherein he said, “I saw the Prophet ﷺ eating cucumbers with fresh dates.”

I add: its chain is sound and free of any harmful defect. Although Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim did experience confusion later in life, he did not narrate during his period of confusion, as al-Ḥāfiẓ notes in al-Taqrīb. Hence al-Ḥāfiẓ declared its isnād authentic in Fatḥ al-Bārī (9/496) after attributing it to al-Nasāʾī, namely in the Kubrā. He then said:

“Al-kharbaz—with a kasrah on the khāʾ, a silent rāʾ, another kasrah on the bāʾ, followed by a zāy—is a type of yellow watermelon. Cucumbers, when they grow large under intense heat, may turn yellow and come to resemble kharbaz; I have observed this myself in the Ḥijāz. This refutes those who claim that the watermelon referred to in the report is the green variety and who argue that the yellow one is hot, like fresh dates. The rationale transmitted is that each of the two cools the heat of the other.”