Abu Dawud

Benefits and Issues:
‘Araya’ is the plural of ‘Ariyah’.
Its meaning and concept is that to give one or two date trees as a loan (ariyah) is an act of kindness.
When a person gives a tree from his own orchard as a loan to neighbors or other deserving people, their repeated coming and going may become burdensome.
The exchange of fresh dates from one’s own given tree for dried dates was permitted by the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam).
This is so that the act of kindness is not discontinued due to the inconvenience of repeated visits.
The sale of an unspecified amount of fresh fruit for dried fruit has been declared prohibited.
However, the commendable practice of ‘araya’ has been made an exception to this. In ‘araya’, the exchange of fresh dates for dried dates is not a commercial transaction.
The Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) limited this permission to the amount of five wasq.
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Chapter: Selling Dates on the Trees for Gold or Silver, Hadith: 2190)

Hadith Commentary: Benefits and Issues: The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has declared the prohibition of the transaction of muzabanah to be due to usury (riba), and it is evident that even if fresh dates are exchanged for dried dates in equal measure, the fresh dates will decrease in quantity once they dry. In this way, there will be an increase or decrease, which constitutes usury (riba).