We were the Ansar with the most farmland. We used to rent out the land on the basis that this portion would be ours and that portion would be theirs. Sometimes this portion would yield a crop while that portion would not. So he forbade us from that. As for renting in exchange for silver, he did not forbid us.
كنا أكثر الأنصار حقلا. قال: كنا نكري الأرض على أن لنا هذه ولهم هذه، فربما أخرجت هذه، ولم تخرج هذه. فنهانا عن ذلك. وأما الورق فلم ينهنا.
Bukhari narrated it in "Farming and Sharecropping" (2332), and Muslim in "Sales" (1547:117), both through the route of Sufyan bin Uyayna, from Yahya bin Saeed, from Hanzala Zurqi, who heard Rafi bin Khadij say what has already been mentioned. This is Muslim's wording. Bukhari's wording is, "We were the people of Madinah with the most farmland, and one of us would lease out his land, saying, 'This plot is mine, and this plot is yours.' Sometimes this one would produce a yield and that one would not, so the Prophet ﷺ forbade them from doing that." In another version he has, "Sometimes this one would produce a yield and that one would not, so we were forbidden from doing that, but we were not forbidden from silver." He narrated this in "Conditions," from Malik bin Ismail, who said, Ibn Uyayna narrated to us with his chain of transmission.As for his statement, "As for silver," it is apparent from all the reports that this was Rafi's own opinion, based on his own reasoning, because he understood that the reason leasing out land was forbidden was the uncertainty involved, and when that uncertainty is removed, it becomes valid.