He said that during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, people used to sell fruits while still on the trees. When the harvest came and the time for payment arrived, the buyer would say, "The fruit was struck by daman," or "It was afflicted by disease," or "It was struck by qusham," citing various blights as excuses.When disputes over this became frequent before him, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "If that is the case, then do not sell the fruit until its ripeness becomes apparent." He said this as a piece of advice he offered them because of the abundance of their disputes.
قال كان الناس في عهد رسول الله ﷺ يتبايعون الثمار، فإذا جذ الناس وحضر تقاضيهم قال المبتاع: إنه أصاب الثمر الدمان، أصابه مرض، أصابه قشام- عاهات يحتجون بها-، فقال رسول الله ﷺ لما كثرت عنده الخصومة في ذلك: فإما لا فلا تتبايعوا حتى يبدو صلاح الثمر كالمشورة يشير بها لكثرة خصومتهم.
Abu Dawud (3372), Ahmad (216662), and Bayhaqi (5/301-302) all narrated it from the hadith of Yunus bin Muhammad, who said, "I asked Abu Zinad about selling fruit before it shows signs of ripeness, and about what has been said on that subject." He said, "Urwa bin Zubayr used to narrate from Sahl bin Abu Hathma, from Zayd bin Thabit," and he related the hadith similarly. This is how Abu Dawud reported it.Bukhari mentioned it as a suspended narration in his Sahih (2193), saying, "Layth said, from Abu Zinad, from Urwa, from Sahl bin Abu Hathma, from Zayd bin Thabit," and he related it.He (meaning Abu Zinad) said, "Kharija bin Zayd bin Thabit informed me that Zayd bin Thabit would not sell the fruit of his land until the Pleiades rose, so that the yellow could be distinguished from the red."Abu Abdullah (meaning Bukhari) said, "Ali bin Bahr narrated it to us, Hakkam narrated to us, Anbasah narrated to us, from Zakariya, from Abu Zinad, from Sahl, from Zayd."As for Ahmad, he narrated it from Yunus bin Muhammad, who said, "Abdul-Rahman bin Abdullah bin Abu Zinad narrated to us, from his father, from Kharija bin Zayd," who said, "Zayd bin Thabit said, 'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to Madinah while we were selling fruit before its ripeness had become evident.'" And he related it similarly.Its chain of transmission is sahih, and Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Zinad has been subject to some minor criticism, but he has been corroborated. Abu Zinad is Abdullah bin Zakwan, the father of Abdul-Rahman.His saying, "the people cut (jadhdha)," with a jeem and a heavy dhal, means they cut the fruit of the palm trees. Al-jadhadh is the harvesting of palm trees, meaning the cutting of their fruit and removing it from the tree.His saying, "ad-diman" has been explained as the spoiling of the palm blossom, its rotting, and its blackening.His saying, "qisham" has been explained in one narration as something that afflicts the fruit so that it does not ripen into moist dates. It has also been said to mean that the fruit of the palm tree diminishes before it becomes balah (unripe dates).His saying, "fa imma la" originally consists of the conditional "in" together with the extra "ma," which were merged together, and the meaning is, "If you do not do such and such, then do such and such."His saying, "until the Pleiades rise" means at Fajr at the beginning of summer, which is when the heat intensifies in the lands of Hijaz. In reality, what matters is the ripeness itself, and the rising of the Pleiades is simply a sign of it.As for Bukhari's statement, "Ibn Bahr narrated it," he is his teacher, Qattan Razi, and Hakkam is Ibn Salm, also of Razi. Anbasah, with a silent nun, is Ibn Saeed Kufi, who was also known as Razi.This hadith was narrated by Abu Dawud, as mentioned before, from Ahmad bin Salih, who said, "Anbasah bin Khalid narrated to us, from Yunus bin Muhammad." So this is a different person from Anbasah bin Saeed, whom Bukhari mentioned, as Ibn Hajar noted in Fath al-Bari (4/395-396). They are two different people, and whoever thinks they are one and the same has erred.He said, "Anbasah bin Saeed has nothing in Bukhari except this one instance of the suspended narration, unlike Anbasah bin Khalid."