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The third alternative for the landowner is to let out his land to a person who will cultivate it, using the
cultivator’s own equipment, seeds, and animals on the condition that he is to get a specified percentage,
such as half, a third, or whatever is agreed upon, of the total produce of the land; the owner may also make
available to the cultivator his own seeds, equipment, animals, or other help. Such an arrangement is termed
share-cropping.
Al-Bukhâri and Muslim report on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar, Ibn ‘Abbas and Jabir bin ‘Abdullah that the
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) gave the people of Khayber the land to work and cultivate, in return for which they were to
get half of what it produced. In support of their position, scholars who consider share-cropping permissible
say, It is established and well-known that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) practiced it until his death and that after him
the rightly guided Caliphs practiced it until their deaths, as likewise those who came after them. The wives of
the prophet (may Allâh be pleased with them) continued this practice after the death of the Prophet himself
(s.a.w.s.) until the last one of them had died, and so on. This practice cannot be considered to be abrogated
because an abrogation is valid only if it was implemented by the Prophet himself (s.a.w.s.) during his own
lifetime. Now, if he practiced a thing until his death, and thereafter his successors and all the Companions
(may Allâh be pleased with them) acted on it and none of them opposed it, how then is anyone else entitled
to invalidate it? And if it was (actually) abrogated during the lifetime of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), why then did
he continue to practice it after abrogating it? And how was it possible that his closest Companions and
successors should remain ignorant of its abrogation while the story of Khayber was circulating widely and
they were (themselves) acting according to it? And where was the narrator of (the report on this abrogation,
that none of them knew him or had heard about him? (AI-mughni by Ibn Qudadmah, vol. 5, p. 384.)
The Prohibited Form of Share-Cropping
The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) prohibited his Companions to practice another form of share-cropping which was
quite common at that time. The land owner would give out his land conditional to his getting the produce of
one part of it and the cultivator the produce of the remaining part or perhaps half, or to the owner’s getting a
specified weight or measure of the grain produced and the cultivator the rest. But sometimes one part of the
land produced a crop while the other did not, so that one of the two would receive nothing or very little, while
the other took everything. Similarly, if the total produce did not exceed the specified weight or measure, the
owner would get everything while the cultivator would get nothing.
Such a transaction clearly involves great uncertainty and risk, and is contrary to the spirit of justice. The
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) saw that justice demands that both should share the total produce, whether this total is
much or little, according to the agreed-upon ratio. Proportions of the total produce must be specified so that
if the crop is bountiful, it is bountiful for both; if it is meager it is meager for both, and if nothing is produced,
neither of them receives anything. This is the fair distribution for both parties.
Al-Bukhâri reported that Rafi‘ bin Khadij said, “We had the most agricultural land in Madinah, and one of us
would rent out his land, designating a part of it for himself. Sometimes a calamity would hit that part while the
rest of the land was safe, and sometimes the other way around. Consequently, the Prophet (s.a.w.s.)
prohibited us from doing so.”
Muslim reported Rafi‘ bin Khadij as saying, “People used to let out land in the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.)
in exchange for what they grew by the streamlets or at the borders of the fields, or for a fixed quantity of
produce. Sometimes it would happen that the part so set aside was destroyed while the other was safe and
sometimes the opposite, and the people had no investments other than this. Hence the Prophet (s.a.w.s.)
forbade this practice.
Again, Al-Bukhâri reported from Rafi‘ bin Khadij that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) asked, “What do you do with your
agricultural lands?” The people replied, “We let them out for (the produce on the quarter of their area or for
a measure of barley or dates.” He said “Do not do that.” What is meant here is that the land owner would
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take this fixed quantity as “overhead” and would also share in some proportion of the remainder, for
example, the entire produce of the specified one-fourth of the area, plus one-half of the produce of the
remaining three-fourths of the area.
We observe from this that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) was eager to establish perfect justice in his society and to
remove every source of conflict and discord from the community of Believers. Zaid bin Thabit narrated that
two people came to the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) disputing about some la, and he said, “If this is what happens
among you, then do not let out your farms.” (Reported by Abû Daoud.)
The landowner and the cultivator must therefore be mand generous to one another; the landowner should
not demand too high a share of the yield and the worker should take proper care of the land. Ibn ‘Abbas said
that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) did not prohibit share-cropping but advised the owner and the cultivator to be
considerate of each other. (Reported by al-Tirmidhî,who calls it sound.) And when someone said to Taous,
“O Abû ‘Abdur Rahman, why do you not give up share-cropping, since they claim that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.)
forbade it?” he replied, “I help them (the cultivators) and provide for them.” (Reported by Ibn Mâjah.) His
concern was not simply that he should earn something from his land regardless of whether those who were
employed on it got something or suffered hunger; rather, he helped them and took care of them. That was
the true Muslim society.
There may be a landowner who prefers to keep his land idle, not planting any crops or fruit trees on it, rather
than renting it to a farmer for a small proportion of the yield, since he may consider the return too little. With
this in mind, the caliph ‘Umar bin ‘Abdul-Aziz issued a decree to all concerned saying, “Let out your land for
one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth and up to one-tenth of the yield, but do not leave the land uncultivated.”
4. Renting the Land for Money
The fourth option available to the Muslim landowner is to lease the land to the cultivator for a fixed amount of
money, gold, or silver. Some well-known jurists have declared this to be permissible, while others consider it
haram on the basis of sound ahadith of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) which prohibit renting out land for money.
Among the narrators of these ahadith are two Companions who participated in the Battle of Badr, as well as
Raf‘i bin Khadij, Jabir, Abû Sa‘id, Abû Hurairah,and Ibn ‘Umar; all of them report that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.)
absolutely prohibited the renting of agricultural land for money. (See Al-muhAllâh, vol. 8, p. 212.)
Exempted from this prohibition is share-cropping for a specified proportion of the total yield, as is
demonstrated by the Prophet’s transaction with the people of Khayber. He turned land over to them to
cultivate for one-half the total yield and continued to do this until his death; after his death, the rightly guided
Caliphs continued to practice share-cropping on a proportionate basis.
The student of the legislative development of this problem comes across a clear exposition by Ibn Hazm,
who stated: When the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) arrived (in Madinah), the people used to lease their farms, as is
reported by Raf‘i and others. This practice had undoubtedly been common among them before the time of
the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), and it continued after he became the Messenger; it is not permissible for any sane
person to doubt this fact. Then, as is authentically transmitted by Jabir, Abû Hurairah,Abû Sa‘id, Zahir al-
Badri, and Ibn ‘Umar, the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) totally prohibited the leasing of land, thus nullifying this practice;
this is certainly correct and there is no doubt concerning the matter. He who asserts that what was nullified
(i.e., the leasing of land) has been restored and that the certainty of nullification is not established is a liar
and denies the veracity of others saying what he does not know. According to the Qur‘ân, making such an
assertion is haram unless one brings proof for it. And he can never find a proof for it except in the instance in
which the land is let for a given proportion (such as one third or one-fourth) of the total yield, as it is
authentically reported that the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) did this with the people of Khayber after prohibiting it for
several years, and he continued to give them land on a share-cropping basis until his death. (AI-muhAllâh,
vol. 8, p. 224.)
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