Selling Fruit Before It Ripens and Grows Large

Question

In our region it is the custom that while the mangoes on the tree are still quite small, the owners sell them, and the buyer puts them to use after they ripen. Is buying and selling in this way permissible?

Answer

Buying the orchard in this way is proper, but it is wajib for the buyer to pick the mangoes immediately and separate his property from the seller’s tree. If at the time of buying a condition was made that the mangoes will stay on the tree until they ripen and “I will pick them after they ripen”, then this condition is fasid (defective) and vitiates the sale.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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