The Sale of 'Ariyah

Question : This questioner says: Honorable Shaykh, regarding the sale of 'Ariyah, is there not a similarity between it and the sale of Bilal when he sold inferior dates for good dates, which is mentioned in the hadith where the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade it and said, "Ow, ow, do not do it; this is the eye of riba (usury or interest)"? The story the questioner referred to is that good dates were brought to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and he was asked, "Are the dates of Khaybar like this?" They said, "No, but we take one sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) for two sa' and two sa' for three." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Ow," and this is a word of pain and disapproval, "Do not do it." Then he guided him to

Answer : buy good dates with dirhams. The questioner asks if this is like 'Ariyah? The answer is no, because 'Ariyah, as we mentioned, is not permissible except under certain conditions. One of the most important conditions is that the buyer does not have cash to buy the fresh dates. If he does not have cash to buy the fresh dates, and we said that it is not permissible to buy fresh dates with dried dates, it would follow that he must first sell the dried dates, and perhaps harm would occur in that, and then he would buy the fresh dates with dirhams. But for the sake of making things easy for people and facilitating matters, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) granted him a dispensation to buy dried dates with fresh dates, on the condition that it be for the equivalent of its weight in dried dates, and with the conditions we mentioned in the lesson this morning. Yes.