Selling an Orchard While Excepting Some of the Mangoes

Question

Zayd auctions an orchard and sets some conditions for the auction, for example: (1) apart from its price, four maunds (a unit of weight, ≈ 37 kg) of unripe mangoes and two maunds of ripe ones will be taken; the quantity of these mangoes depends on the price: if the price is lower, more mangoes will be taken, and if the price is higher, fewer mangoes will be taken; (2) half of the price will be taken within a week and half after the mangoes ripen, and so on. Are these forms permissible or not?

Answer

If the condition is that the mangoes will be taken from this very orchard, it is not correct, because this is a void exception (istithna’), which “al-Quduri”, “al-Hidaya” and all the other books of fiqh record as prohibited.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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