Discover the meaning of the term Muzabana (مزابنة) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 2 min readIt is selling fresh dates on the palm for measured dry dates, by estimation.
Selling dry dates on the palm for dry dates moubadhdha, cut: the daf’. This sale, by measure and guess, may admit dispute by excess and lack, leading to repulsion and the sale’s rejection: hence named mouzabana.
With mim damma: moudafa’a of az-zaban: the violent push; hence az-zabaniyya: the Fire’s angels, driving the unbelievers therein, pushing them; war called zaboun, driving its sons to death; the poet said: « riders never wearying of fates when war’s mill turns among the pushers ». The she-camel zaboun: pushing her calf from the udder. In the Law, in ad-Dastour: mouzabana is selling dry dates on the palm for cut dry dates; the sale, by estimate and guess, admitting dispute by excess and lack, leading to repulsion and the sale’s rejection: hence its name. Malik said: mouzabana: all of the loose kind whose volume, weight, number unknown, sold for a known of its kind. Ibn ’Arfa relates al-Maziri: « mouzabana among us is selling known for unknown, or unknown for unknown, of one kind in both ». In al-Moutala’: mouzabana and zaban: selling known for unknown of its kind, or unknown for unknown of its kind. In Mo’jam al-Moughni: mouzabana: selling dry dates for fresh by volume, grapes for raisins by volume. Some jurists hold it selling a wet thing for a dry of its kind by estimation, as selling fresh dates on the palm for cut dry dates.
Selling a thing for a thing, neither measured nor weighed.
It is selling fresh dates on the palm for measured dry dates, by estimation.