[Placing the Best Fruit or Vegetables on the Top of the Basket]

Mufti:

Alsayyed Muhammad b. Abdallah Awad Al-Muayyady

تاريخ النشر: January 14, 2026

Fatwa number: 20185

Number of views: 3

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[Placing the Best Fruit or Vegetables on the Top of the Basket]

Fatwa number: 20185

Question: It has become customary in the produce markets that the seller places the best fruit or best greens on the face of the basket and puts the lesser quality underneath. What is the ruling on that?

The answer—and Allah is the granter of success: If the matter has become a custom, there is no impediment to it. However, the buyer retains the option of inspection (khiyār al-ru’yah) and the option due to defect (khiyār al-ʿayb). If he inspects the merchandise and looks at what is underneath, then if he wishes he may take it and if he wishes he may return it. The seller is not permitted to refuse a return, for Allah Most High says: “…except that it be a trade by mutual consent.” [An-Nisā’:29] Hence the seller is obliged to take it back even if it has no defect. If it does have a defect, he is likewise obliged to take it back.
Accordingly, the purchaser is not obliged to take the commodity unless he has looked at it, seen it, and seen the defect and consented to it. If the buyer’s consent is realized, then the seller is not obliged to take it back and the sale is concluded—unless there is a condition or the like.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2