A man who buys date palms and sells them before harvesting

Sayyiduna Zayd bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna al-Zubayr bin al-Awwam (may Allah be pleased with him) saw no harm in a man buying the fruit on the tree when it has ripened, then selling it on before cutting it.

Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) used to dislike this.

Muhammad (may Allah have mercy on him) said: When someone buys fruit on the tree, he should not sell it on until he has taken possession of it.

Ikrimah used to dislike that a man should buy fruit on the tree and then sell it on before cutting it.

Al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) said: If a man buys fruit while it is still on the tree, there is no harm in his selling it onward before cutting it.

He said: For a time, Muhammad bin Sirin (may Allah have mercy on him) saw no harm in it; then, when people questioned him about it very often, he said: Leave what makes you doubt for what does not make you doubt.

Tha'labah bin Abi al-Furat al-Ansari (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I sold a garment to some people and took a pledge from them for a fixed term. When the appointed term was completed, I bought palm trees from them in return for what they owed me, took possession of them, and dried their fruit on the trees. Some bunches of it fell, and I picked them up. Then the people who had sold them to me came to me and showed a desire for that fruit, so I sold the fruit to them for a fixed term. People said a great deal about this, so I asked Salim (may Allah have mercy on him) about it and told him the whole story. He said: Was it in your mind that you would sell it back to those same people? I said: No, by Allah, the thought did not even cross my heart. He said: Then there is no harm.

And I asked al-Qasim (may Allah have mercy on him). He said: Was it in your mind to sell it to them? I said: No, by Allah, the thought did not even cross my heart. He said: There is no harm.

Ikrimah was asked about a person who buys the fruit of a palm tree. He said: He should not sell it onward until he has cut the fruit.