The ruling on bidding for dates and fish in boxes without knowing their weight
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, there is a lot of bidding in the markets for dates and for fish as well. Yes. It is common in the markets for dates and fish to be in boxes and crates, so their weight is not known. In fact, we bid without knowing the weight, based only on seeing them. Is this permissible? Or does it contradict the hadith of Jabir where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sahih Muslim 1530a Is it sound?
Answer:
No. A heap of dates, if it is sold for dates of the same type, that is not permissible until the equality is made clear. But if it is sold for something other than its type, there is no harm. Is it permissible to sell fish and items that are in boxes or gathered in a place? It is permissible to sell this for a price; there is no objection to that. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, there is a lot of bidding in the markets for dates and for fish as well. Yes. It is common in the markets for dates and fish to be in boxes and crates, so their weight is not known. In fact, we bid without knowing the weight, based only on seeing them. Is this permissible? Or does it contradict the hadith of Jabir where the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
the sale of a heap of dates the weight of which is unknown
عن بيع الصبرة من التمر التي لا يعلمAnswer:
No. A heap of dates, if it is sold for dates of the same type, that is not permissible until the equality is made clear. But if it is sold for something other than its type, there is no harm. Is it permissible to sell fish and items that are in boxes or gathered in a place? It is permissible to sell this for a price; there is no objection to that. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب الرخصة في العرايا وبيع الأصول والثمار — islamhouse.com (23:15)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.