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He must not have any cash with which he could have bought the dates.
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Both parties must take possession before parting company: the dried dates by being measured out, and the crop on the palm by leaving the tree unharvested for the buyer to pick at will.
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The quantity may not exceed five wasqs; the coming ḥadith will address this limit.
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If two or more buyers each purchase up to five wasqs of fresh dates from the same seller, the sale is sound. Likewise, if a single buyer purchases five wasqs from two or more sellers, it is also sound. But should someone buy more than five wasqs from two or more sellers, the sale is invalid.
Second benefit
The majority of scholars restrict this concession to date-palms alone. A group of jurists, however—including Shaykh al-Islām—extend it to all kinds of fruit. Their reasoning is that fresh dates were the delicacy of Madinah, and every region has its own seasonal fruit; the rationale behind the concession therefore applies across the board, making the license general.
Second ḥadith
Abū Hurayrah (d. 59 AH) reported that the Prophet ﷺ “granted a concession for the sale of ʿarāyā involving five wasqs or less.”
Overall meaning
Because the issue of ʿarāyā represents a dispensation that lifts an underlying prohibition, the Prophet limited it to the amount people typically need. He therefore allowed only five wasqs or less, since that quantity normally suffices for enjoying fresh dates.
Points derived from the ḥadith
- A concession exists for selling ʿarāyā when one needs to eat fresh dates.
- The dispensation is confined to the amount that meets the need; it may not be exceeded.
- A wasq—pronounced with a silent sīn—equals sixty prophetic sāʿs, that is, three hundred sāʿs. As noted earlier, the prophetic sāʿ is smaller than our present-day measure (our standard kīlah) by one fifth plus one fifth of a fifth; this figure marks the upper limit for permissibility.