Sunan an-Nasa'i 4614
سنن النسائي#4614SahihIt was narrated that 'Abdullah Ibn Abi Awfa about paying in advance. He said:'We used to pay in advance during the time of the Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr and 'Umar, for wheat, barley and dates, paying people whom we did not know if they had those things or not.'''Ibn Abza said meaning, similarly
Scholarly Authentication
We show the most cautious grade (weakest-wins) as the overall label. Individual scholars graded it as follows:
Abu GhuddahSahih
Al-AlbaniSahih
Zubair Ali ZaiSahih Bukhari
In-book reference: 44:166