Kitab al-Buyu: Grain in Ears, House Keys, Transaction Costs and Delivery

1. Scope: five connected rules

The previous lesson completed sales of attached fruit and retained quantities. The source now turns to the practical incidents of a sale.

The sequence concerns grain enclosed naturally in ears or pods, accessories included with a house, transaction-service fees, and delivery of property and payment.

The next heading in Quduri is Bab Khiyar al-Shart. This level finishes the intervening text without starting that new chapter.

2. Original: ears of wheat and pods of beans

وَيَجُوزُ بَيْعُ الْحِنْطَةِ فِي سُنْبُلِهَا وَالْبَاقِلَّاءِ فِي قِشْرِهَا
Translation: It is permissible to sell wheat while still in its ears and broad beans while still in their pods.

Al-hintah is wheat; sunbul is its ear. Al-baqilla refers to broad beans, and qishr is their pod or enclosing covering.

The grain already exists but is held inside a natural covering. This is different from selling produce that does not yet exist.

3. Concealed goods versus nonexistent goods

Suppose wheat grains have formed within visible ears. The purchaser views the crop without shelling every ear before the sale.

That is an existing but enclosed sale object. A crop that has not yet formed is a distinct case.

Quduri's permission must not be expanded into unrestricted sale of a speculative future harvest.

4. Broad beans: a concrete example

A grower sells 50 kg of existing fresh broad-bean pods. The identified pods and beans inside them are the subject of the contract.

Their natural covering does not by itself invalidate the sale. The ordinary rules of identification, quantity or a specified lot, price and delivery still matter.

If the agreement requires cleaned beans rather than pods, that distinct delivery obligation must be addressed.

5. Extending the explanation through commentary

Hanafi commentaries discuss related examples such as rice, sesame and certain nuts in natural coverings. Their point is that a natural protective husk does not always prevent a valid sale.

The species, condition, risk of defects and customary commercial handling can matter in applying the rule.

Quduri's quoted clause names wheat and broad beans specifically; the other commodities are explanatory commentary, not extra words of the original clause.

6. Caution: same-genus grain exchange

Selling ears of wheat for an ordinary monetary price is not the same as exchanging wheat enclosed in ears for cleaned wheat of the same genus.

In a same-genus ribawi exchange, the amount concealed inside the ears can prevent verification of required equality and introduce a usury concern.

Therefore this general permission should not be read as allowing every unknown-ratio wheat-for-wheat exchange.

7. Threshing and delivering the contracted goods

Where the agreed subject is the grain itself, its proper delivery may require threshing and winnowing. Classical commentators place that work on the seller in their discussed case.

This is an explanation from the commentaries, not a second quotation from Quduri's principal text. If the identified ears themselves were contracted for, the contract's specification and commercial custom matter.

8. Original: keys included in a house sale

وَمَنْ بَاعَ دَارًا دَخَلَ فِي الْبَيْعِ مَفَاتِيحُ أَغْلَاقِهَا
Translation: Whoever sells a house, the keys of its locks are included in the sale.

Aghlaq are locks or closures, while mafatih are their keys.

Where locks are fixed accessories serving the house, the keys needed to operate them are treated as included. Handing over the premises while withholding the associated working keys would obstruct normal use and delivery.

9. Accessory included, separate property distinguished

Not every object located inside a house is automatically sold with it. Necessary accessories of the property differ from freestanding belongings.

A key to a fixed door lock is related to use of the premises. A personal bicycle or a tenant's chest does not become part of the house sale merely by being there.

This continues the distinction between principal property and its customary accessories already seen with buildings, trees and growing crops.

10. Fixed locks, portable locks and custom

Case 1: A key to the installed main-door lock — the straightforward original case.
Case 2: A portable padlock belonging to the seller's travel bag — not included merely because it was lying inside the house.
Case 3: A modern electronic lock's access code or card — not named in Quduri, but potentially analyzed through the principle of accessories, contemporary contracts and custom.

The underlying issue is usable access and effective possession.

11. Original: measurer and money examiner

وَأُجْرَةُ الْكَيَّالِ وَنَاقِدِ الثَّمَنِ عَلَى الْبَائِعِ
Translation: The wages of the measurer and of the money examiner are borne by the seller.

Kayyal is a person measuring the sold goods; naqid al-thaman examines coinage or the quality of payment.

If goods were sold by measurement, measurement is part of the seller's duty to make proper delivery. Commentaries report variant transmissions about the coin examiner's fee; keep Quduri's stated position distinct from later juristic preferences.

12. Why the seller pays the measurer

A seller agrees to deliver 10 qafiz of grain. The promised quantity must be measured before proper delivery.

Measuring completes the seller's duty to furnish the specified goods; hence the fee is placed on the seller in the stated case.

Where a specified heap is sold as a visible undivided lot without a measuring obligation, the same measuring-service duty cannot simply be assumed.

13. The coin examiner is not the coin weigher

Historically, coins could require inspection for genuineness, defects or acceptable quality. A naqid checks quality and validity of payment.

This is not the same task as the wazzan, who checks the quantity or weight.

Quduri assigns the coin examiner's fee to the seller; Al-Binayah and other commentaries also record other transmissions and later preferences. Do not present these as part of the quoted source text.

14. Original: weighing the price

وَأُجْرَةُ وَزَّانِ الثَّمَنِ عَلَى الْمُشْتَرِي
Translation: The wages of the person who weighs the price are borne by the buyer.

Wazzan al-thaman is the person who weighs the coins or other weighed price tendered in payment.

The buyer is responsible for furnishing the promised price, so the cost of verifying its weight is assigned to the buyer.

This concerns weighing the payment, not weighing the commodity being sold.

15. Different weighing tasks mean different costs

Example: 100 kg of grain is purchased for a specified weight of monetary metal coins.
1. Weighing out the 100 kg completes the seller's delivery obligation.
2. Weighing the stipulated coinage completes the buyer's payment obligation.

The word weighing is used in both, but the legal function is different.

Modern transfer or card-processing fees require separate analysis of contracts, custom and contemporary practice; Quduri's medieval coin terminology does not automatically settle them.

16. Quick comparison of the three service fees

Quduri's allocation is:
1. Measurer of the sold goods — seller.
2. Examiner of the payment — seller in Quduri's main wording, with documented alternative transmissions.
3. Weigher of the price — buyer.

Each task supports a different side's performance. It is incorrect to say that every transaction service charge is automatically assigned to the same party.

17. Original: cash payment before delivery

وَمَنْ بَاعَ سِلْعَةً بِثَمَنٍ قِيلَ لِلْمُشْتَرِي: ادْفَعِ الثَّمَنَ أَوَّلًا، فَإِذَا دَفَعَ قِيلَ لِلْبَائِعِ: سَلِّمِ الْمَبِيعَ
Translation: When someone sells an item for a price, the buyer is instructed to pay first; after payment the seller is instructed to deliver the sold item.

Silah means the sold commodity and thaman its monetary price.

For an immediately payable cash transaction, the classical ordering is payment first, then delivery of the identified goods. The commentators explain the sequence by the legal status of the monetary price and the already designated sale object.

A deferred-price contract or unavailable item creates a different delivery question.

18. Why payment is directed first

A buyer purchases a specific book on a table for Rs 500, immediately payable. The book is identified, but the money has not yet been tendered.

Under the stated classical rule the buyer pays the cash price first, after which the seller hands over the book.

This is not a license to retain goods after accepting full payment; delivery then becomes the seller's duty.

19. Exceptions: absent goods and deferred price

Two distinctions matter:
1. If the merchandise is absent or not ready for delivery, commentaries do not require the buyer to pay regardless of the seller's ability to hand it over.
2. If the parties validly stipulated a deferred price, immediate cash payment is not due merely because a sale exists.

“Every buyer must always pay before any delivery” is an overgeneralization. The text's paradigm is a present commodity for an immediately due price.

20. Effective possession, not just words

A seller says, “Take the goods,” but they remain in a locked warehouse to which the buyer has no access. This raises a genuine issue of effective ability to take possession.

Delivery must enable the entitled party to receive the property. Movables and real estate may require different customary forms of transfer or clearing access.

A verbal declaration or receipt is not automatically identical to legal possession in every kind of transaction.

21. Original: simultaneous delivery in barter

وَمَنْ بَاعَ سِلْعَةً بِسِلْعَةٍ أَوْ ثَمَنًا بِثَمَنٍ قِيلَ لَهُمَا: سَلِّمَا مَعًا
Translation: Whoever exchanges one commodity for another, or one monetary consideration for another, both parties are told to deliver simultaneously.

Silah bi-silah means one commodity exchanged for another, such as one particular book for another. Thamanan bi-thaman concerns price or currency exchanged for price or currency.

Quduri directs both parties to deliver together, with neither side generally postponed as in the simple cash-for-goods sequence.

Currency exchanges also carry the separate conditions of the law of sarf, which this sentence does not remove.

22. Barter: an example of reciprocal delivery

Zayd exchanges one identified bicycle for Amr's specific computer table. Both sale objects are known.

One side demands, “You surrender yours first; I might hand mine over later.” That is not the concurrent delivery instruction given for the usual barter case.

Both sides making their property available for handover together preserves reciprocity. Special contractual or customary arrangements may need their own analysis.

23. Currency exchanges and the rule of sarf

In an exchange of one monetary consideration for another, both sides convey a price-like countervalue. Quduri instructs concurrent handover here.

But the detailed rules of sarf still govern currency and precious-metal exchanges, including any required in-session possession and same-genus equality.

The lesson's limited point is to distinguish two-sided monetary exchange from the ordinary goods-for-cash payment sequence.

24. Compare three contract forms

Case 1: A specific item for Rs 1,000 immediately payable — buyer pays, then seller delivers.
Case 2: A book exchanged for a specified pen — both deliver concurrently.
Case 3: One currency or monetary countervalue for another — concurrent handover, subject to additional sarf requirements.

Identify what each party is exchanging before applying the rule.

25. A complete practical transaction

Suppose 20 qafiz of wheat is bought for an agreed immediate monetary price.
1. The seller supplies and measures the promised grain; the stated measurer's fee falls on the seller.
2. If the agreed money is weighed, the buyer furnishes its proper weight and pays the price weigher.
3. For the normal cash sale, the buyer pays and then the seller properly delivers the grain.

Keep quantity of goods, quantity of payment and order of delivery distinct.

26. Sequence and limits of this section

This uninterrupted portion of the source contains five principal topics; the costs provision is displayed in two segments:
1. Wheat in ears and beans in pods.
2. Keys of house locks.
3. The measurer's and payment examiner's wages.
4. The price weigher's wages.
5. Delivery in cash sales and reciprocal exchanges.

These are related incidents of a sale, not a single undifferentiated rule for every commercial arrangement.

27. Integrated doctrinal summary

Existing grain inside a natural husk may be sold; future nonexistent goods and ribawi same-genus exchanges require separate analysis.

A house's related installed-lock keys follow the sale, unlike unrelated personal possessions.

Quduri assigns the measurer's and coin examiner's wages to the seller and the price weigher's fee to the buyer; commentarial disagreement on the examiner's fee should be remembered.

In the ordinary immediate goods-for-money sale, payment is directed first, then delivery. In barter or monetary exchange, reciprocal delivery is concurrent. The next original heading is Bab Khiyar al-Shart.