The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the sale of habal al-habalah, a transaction practiced by the people of the pre-Islamic era. A man would buy a young camel with payment deferred until the she-camel gave birth, and then until the offspring in her womb itself gave birth.
أن رسول الله ﷺ نهي عن بيع حبل الحبلة، وكان بيعا يتابيعه أهل الجاهلية، كان الرجل يبتاع الجزور إلى أن تنتج الناقة، ثم تنتج التي في بطنها.
This is narrated by Malik in the Book of Sales (62), from Nafi, from Abdullah bin Umar, as mentioned. Bukhari also narrated it in the Book of Sales (2143) through the route of Malik, with the same wording. Muslim narrated it in the Book of Sales (1514) through two other routes from Nafi, both abridged and in full.As for the statement, "It was a type of sale that the people of pre-Islamic ignorance used to practice," this is narrated by Abu Dawud (3380) and others from Malik, but they did not mention this addition. Perhaps they confined themselves to the raised part of the hadith, because this statement is inserted into the hadith, and the correct view is that it comes from the tafsir of Ibn Umar, as is apparent from the narration of Yahya Qattan, from Ubaydullah, who said, Nafi told me, from Ibn Umar, who said, "The people of pre-Islamic ignorance used to sell the meat of camels for payment due at habal al-habalah. He said, habal al-habalah means that the she-camel gives birth to what is in her womb, then the offspring she bore becomes pregnant. The Prophet ﷺ forbade them from that."This is narrated by Bukhari (3843) from Musaddad, and by Muslim from a group, all of them from Yahya Qattan. So whoever said that this comes from the tafsir of Nafi may simply not have come across this narration.As for what is meant by habal al-habalah, Nawawi said in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, "The scholars differed regarding what is meant by the prohibition of selling habal al-habalah. A group said it refers to a sale with a deferred price, to be paid when the she-camel gives birth and her offspring in turn gives birth. Others said it refers to selling the offspring of a pregnant she-camel while it is still in the womb, and this is closer to the linguistic meaning." End of quote.Ibn Athir said in Nihayah, "The first habal refers to what is in the wombs of the she-camels in terms of pregnancy, and the second habal refers to what is in the wombs of the she-camels' offspring. It was forbidden for two reasons. First, it involves uncertainty, and it is selling something that has not yet come into existence, meaning selling what the fetus currently in the she-camel's womb will itself bear, on the assumption that it will be female, so it is a sale of the offspring of an offspring. Second, it was said that habal al-habalah means selling something with payment deferred to a term defined by when the pregnancy currently in the she-camel's womb gives birth, which is an unknown term, and this is not valid." End of quote.