Explanation of the hadith of Abu Hurayrah: He said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say when the fresh dates were brought to him: ‘O Allah, bless us in our city…’”

The Shaykh : And he cites a hadith on this with its authentic chain of narration from Abu Hurayrah, who said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say when the *zahu*—a type of date in its early stage of ripening—was brought to him, the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Then he would hand it to the youngest of the children next to him. This is one of the Prophetic etiquettes that few people know, and even fewer act upon. When new fruit first arrives, it is offered to the small child. This is the Sunnah; this is what the Messenger (peace be upon him) used to do when this fruit came to him. He would first supplicate for the city for good, saying: The city, one of whose names is Taybah. On this occasion, I remind you that many Islamic writers call it Yathrib, and this is a pre-Islamic name that a Muslim should not follow, nor should he imitate the pre-Islamic people in using it. He should either call it by its well-known name, “Al-Madinah”, or preferably call it “Taybah”, because Allah named it so on the tongue of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). So, we should either say Taybah or Al-Madinah. As for Yathrib, that is one of the names of the pre-Islamic age. It is regrettable that Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali, in his book *Fiqh al-Sirah*, frequently uses this name, Yathrib, for the city. When I checked his hadiths, I pointed this issue out to him. Here, the hadith comes with the well-known name. He (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say when the *zahu* was brought to him—*zahu* is *basr* from the dates, and *basr* is the very beginning of the ripening of the date. Usually, the date is green, then it begins to turn yellow, or it turns red depending on the variety. So, the beginning of its turning yellow or red means the beginning of sweetness seeping into it, but the astringent substance is still very strong in it, so it is not eaten until it begins to turn red from its stem, from the bottom. We see in Al-Madinah, in many of the… the *basr* dates; the whole date, from top to bottom, either turns yellow or red, but if the bottom is red… and… this is the *basr*. And all of this is an indication that this date is at the very beginning of its ripening. So, when this *zahu* came to him (peace and blessings be upon him)—its name is *basr* and its name is *zahu*—he would supplicate for the people of Al-Madinah, saying: They used to, and still do, use the *mudd* and the *sa'* in measuring, and they rarely use the scale for grains, wheat, and barley. And in this hadith he says: In some hadiths: And Ibrahim (peace be upon him) supplicated for Makkah, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) mentioned it, saying: Then he would hand this new fruit to the youngest of the boys who was sitting closest to him.
This hadith is a detailed explanation, or contains much detail, of a hadith that came before, and he made a new chapter for it. He said in the chapter following the previous one, “The Chapter on Mercy to the Young Child,” and mentioned the aforementioned hadith from 'Amr ibn Shu'ayb, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Do you remember? I think this hadith came up with us before. Now, as a practical translation of the phrase “He who does not show mercy to our young one is not one of us,” from the category of mercy to the young child, is that this new fruit is offered to the small child before the older one, because the small child remains more eager for something new than the older one. So this is part of showing mercy to the young child. Yes.

The questioner : ... ؟

The Shaykh : No, this is contrary to the Sunnah. Sugar is abundant and plentiful. The Sunnah is for the… and the new thing here is not known except by the Sunnah, for a month, two months, six months at most. As for the usual distribution, I think that has passed or will come; I do not know. In explicit hadiths: There is no organization or arrangement here; rather, this is the aforementioned etiquette regarding new fruit. The point is that this second chapter seems to hint and indicate that that etiquette of starting by giving the new fruit to the young child is part of what falls under showing mercy to the young child, which the Messenger (peace be upon him) encouraged in this hadith: