30 - Chapter: On the Exemption of Crop Disasters (al-Jawaʾiḥ)

4527 - Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥasan informed us, saying: Ḥajjāj narrated to us, saying: Ibn Jurayj said: Abū al-Zubayr informed me that he heard Jābir say: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "If you sell fruit to your brother, and then a disaster strikes it, it is not lawful for you to take anything from him. By what right would you take your brother's wealth?"(1)

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= The claim that this ḥadīth contains an insertion (idrāj) was made by Abū Ḥātim and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāziyān, Ibn Khuzaymah, and several other leading scholars of ḥadīth, as I have clarified in my book "Taqrīb al-Manhaj bi-Tartīb al-Mudraj." I related therein from Ibn Khuzaymah that he said: I saw Anas ibn Mālik in a dream, and he told me that it is raised (marfūʿ), and that Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated it from Ḥumayd as an insertion, but he said at its end: I do not know whether Anas said "By what would he deem it lawful" or he narrated it from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. And the matter in such a case is close [i.e., of minor consequence].

Muslim (1555): (16) also narrated it from Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Darāwardī, from Ḥumayd, through the same chain, abbreviated and raised (marfūʿ), with the wording: "If Allah does not make it ripen, by what would any of you deem it lawful to take his brother's wealth?"

Al-Nawawī said in "Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim" 10/218: Al-Dāraquṭnī said: This is an error on the part of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād or ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz at the time of dictating it to Muḥammad; for Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥamzah heard it from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz as a detached statement, clearly indicating that it is the speech of Anas, and that is correct — it is not the speech of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbād dropped the speech of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and brought the speech of Anas, making it raised (marfūʿ), and that is an error.

See also "al-Ilzāmāt wa-al-Tatabbuʿ," pp. 360–361.

Aḥmad (13314) and (13613), Ibn Mājah (2217), and Ibn Ḥibbān (4993) also narrated it via Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Ḥumayd, through the same chain, with the wording: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade selling fruit until it ripens (tuz'hī), and selling grapes until they turn black, and selling grain until it hardens.

Al-Sindī said: His statement "he forbade selling fruits" means fruits on the trees. "Until it ripens (tuz'hī)" — from azhā, meaning when it turns red or yellow. "If Allah withholds the fruit" — i.e., from reaching full ripeness. "By what" — i.e., in what manner, or in exchange for what. "His brother's wealth" — i.e., the price. This rationale only applies when the buyer has not stipulated cutting [the fruit immediately]. From this, the author derived the permissibility of selling before ripeness becomes apparent on the condition of cutting, and Allah knows best.

(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. Ḥajjāj is Ibn Muḥammad al-Miṣṣīṣī, and Ibn Jurayj — who is ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Jurayj — is trustworthy and reliable, and his narration from Abū al-Zubayr is sound.