Overall meaning:
The Prophet ﷺ made the charity of al-Fiṭr obligatory upon every Muslim who has enough to spare beyond his own sustenance for that day—old and young, male and female, free person and slave alike—requiring each of them to give one ṣāʿ of dates or one ṣāʿ of barley.

When the reddish wheat reached Madinah during the caliphate of Muʿāwiyah, and he entered the city as a pilgrim, he said, “In my view, one mudd of this wheat equals two mudds of the other grains because of its superior quality and benefit.”

As for Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him), he said: “In the Prophet’s time we used to give one ṣāʿ of food—and ‘food’ for us meant wheat—as well as one ṣāʿ of dried curd and one ṣāʿ of raisins. I shall therefore keep on giving a full ṣāʿ of wheat and other items, just as I did in the days of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, out of preference for strict adherence to his practice.”

And so that the charity would achieve its purpose of enriching the poor, it was ordered that it be delivered to the needy before the people go out for the ʿEid prayer.

Points derived from the ḥadith:
1- Zakat al-Fiṭr is obligatory, and the Muslims are unanimous on this, for the wording is “He made it obligatory (farada).”
2- It must be given on behalf of every Muslim, whether young or old, male or female, free or slave.
3- It is not obligatory for the unborn child, though many scholars recommended giving it for the fetus. Reports from the Companions indicate that they liked to do so, and ʿUthmān (may Allah be pleased with him) used to give it for the unborn as well.
4- The apparent wording of the ḥadith limits the payment to the specified foodstuffs. The well-known view in Imam Aḥmad’s school is that nothing else suffices when one of those items is available. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, however, held that it may be paid in the staple food of one’s country even if the stated items are obtainable; this is also a report from Imam Aḥmad and the opinion of most scholars. Of all the possible foods, the best is whatever benefits the recipient most, for that is what achieves the intended sufficiency on that day.
5- The outward sense of Abū Saʿīd’s ḥadith is that the required amount is one ṣāʿ, whether the offering is wheat or something else. This is the position of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and the majority. Abū Ḥanīfah held that half a ṣāʿ of wheat suffices, and Ibn al-Qayyim inclines in his work al-Hady toward supporting the proofs for that view. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah also chose this opinion.