Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu'r-Rijal, Muhammad ibn
Abdar-Rahman ibn Haritha that his mother, Amra bint Abd ar-Rahman used
to sell her fruit and keep some of it aside.
Malik said, "The
generally agreed upon way of doing things among us is that when a man
sells the fruit of his orchard, he can keep aside up to a third of the
fruit, but that is not to be exceeded. There is no harm in what is
less than a third."
Malik added that he thought there was no
harm for a man to sell the fruit of his orchard and keep aside only
the fruit of a certain palm-tree or palm-trees which he had chosen and
whose number he had specified, because the owner was only keeping
aside certain fruit of his own orchard and everything else he sold.