We visited Abdullah bin Maqil and asked him about sharecropping. He said, "Thabit claimed that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade sharecropping and commanded leasing instead, saying, 'There is no harm in it.'"
دخلنا على عبد الله بن معقل، فسألناه عن المزارعة، فقال: زعم ثابت أن رسول الله ﷺ نهي عن المزارعة، وأمر بالمؤاجرة، وقال: لا بأس بها.
Muslim narrated it in the Book of Sales (1549:119) from Ishaq bin Mansur, who reported from Yahya bin Hammad, who reported from Abu Awana, from Sulayman Shaybani, from Abdullah bin Saaib, who said, and then he mentioned it.His words, "muajarah," mean ijarah, which is the transfer of ownership of a benefit in exchange for compensation for a known period.It has also been narrated from Zayd bin Thabit, who said, "May Allah forgive Rafi bin Khadij. By Allah, I know more about this hadith than he does. What happened was that two men had quarreled, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'If this is the state of affairs between you, then do not lease out farmland.'" He said, "Rafi heard his statement, 'Do not lease out farmland.'"This was narrated by Abu Dawud (3390), Nasai (3927), Ibn Majah (2461), and Ahmad in his Musnad (21588), all of them through the hadith of Ismail bin Ulaya, who related to us from Abdul-Rahman bin Ishaq, from Abu Ubayda bin Muhammad bin Ammar, from Walid bin Abu Walid, from Urwa bin Zubayr, who said that Zayd bin Thabit said what has been mentioned. However, its chain contains Abu Ubayda bin Muhammad bin Ammar bin Yasir, whom no one has verified as reliable, and I did not find any corroborating narrator for him. Al-Hafiz said of him, "Acceptable," meaning if corroborated. His teacher, Walid bin Abu Walid, is weak in his hadith transmission.As for what has been narrated from Zayd bin Thabit, who said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade mukhabarah. I said, 'What is mukhabarah?' He said, 'It is that you take land in exchange for half, a third, or a quarter of its produce,'" this is daif. It was narrated by Abu Dawud (3407) from Abu Bakr bin Abu Shayba, who related to us from Umar bin Ayub, from Jafar bin Barqan, from Thabit bin Hajjaj, from Zayd bin Thabit, and then he mentioned it. Its chain is daif because of Umar bin Ayub, who is Abdi Mawsili, and his teacher Jafar bin Barqan. Both of them are not seriously problematic, except that they contradicted the narrations of the reliable narrators regarding the permissibility of mukhabarah for half, a third, or a quarter, or for a known amount. Their isolated narration is therefore not accepted.On this subject there is also what has been narrated from Muaz bin Jabal, that he leased out land during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, for a third or a quarter, and that this practice continued to be followed up to his own day. This was narrated by Ibn Majah (2463) through the hadith of Mujahid, from Tawus, that Muaz bin Jabal leased out land, and then he mentioned it. This chain contains a break, for Tawus (who is Ibn Kaysan) never met Muaz bin Jabal. Furthermore, Muaz died during the caliphate of Umar and never lived to see the caliphate of Uthman, so there is a compound error in it.The legal understanding drawn from the hadiths in this chapter is as follows. The hadiths of Jabir bin Abdullah, Abu Saeed, Abu Hurairah, and others indicate that the Ansar, the people of Madinah, used to farm land in exchange for a third, a quarter, or an eighth of its produce. When the Muhajirin came to Madinah, having left behind their homes and wealth, with nothing in hand to live on, the Prophet ﷺ commanded the Ansar to support their brothers, the Muhajirin. He said to them, "Whoever has land should farm it himself, and if he will not farm it, he should let his brother farm it." He also said, "Whoever has surplus land should farm it himself or grant it to his brother," and then said reproachfully, "If he refuses, then let him keep his land to himself."Ibn Abbas said, "The Prophet ﷺ did not forbid muzaraah. Rather, he commanded that they be kind to one another, as already mentioned." Allah Most High says, "For the poor emigrants who were expelled from their homes and their properties" [Hashr 59:8]. When their circumstances improved and their sources of livelihood diversified through spoils of war, trade, and other means, the Prophet ﷺ permitted leasing land for a third, a quarter, or an eighth, and for anything suitable to serve as a price for a sale, such as gold, silver, dirhams, and dinars.As for the statement of Rafi bin Khadij, "We used to lease it out during the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ for a third, a quarter, or for a specified amount of produce. Then one day a man from among my paternal uncles came to us and said, 'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has forbidden us a practice that was beneficial to us.' He then said, 'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded the owner of the land either to farm it himself or to let it be farmed, and he disapproved of leasing it out.'" This report from this man pertains to the period when the Muhajirin were in need of support. When their circumstances improved, the Prophet permitted it, as I have explained. The matter then became one of consensus regarding the permissibility of leasing land, up to our own time.Bukhari said, "Qays bin Muslim said, from Abu Jafar (who is Muhammad bin Ali bin Husayn, Baqir), 'There was no household of the emigrants in Madinah that did not farm land for a third or a quarter.'" Ali, Saad bin Malik, Abdullah bin Masud, Umar bin Abdul-Aziz, Qasim, Urwa, the family of Abu Bakr, the family of Umar, the family of Ali, and Ibn Sirin all engaged in muzaraah.Abdul-Rahman bin Aswad said, "I used to be a partner with Abdul-Rahman bin Yazid in farming." Umar dealt with the people on the basis that if he provided the seed himself, he would receive half, and if they provided the seed, they would receive a corresponding share.Hasan said, "There is no harm if the land belongs to one of the two partners while both contribute to its expenses, and whatever comes out of it is shared between them." Zuhri held the same view. Hasan also said, "There is no harm in having cotton picked for half the yield." Ibrahim, Ibn Sirin, Ataa, Hakam, Zuhri, and Qatada said, "There is no harm in giving out cloth for a third or a quarter of what is produced from it, or similar arrangements." Maamar said, "There is no harm in having livestock cared for in exchange for a third or a quarter for a specified term." See Fath al-Bari (10/5).His statement, "cloth is given out for a third or a quarter," means that yarn is given to a weaver to weave, with a third of the woven cloth being his and the rest belonging to the owner of the yarn. His statement, "that livestock be leased out," means for plowing.Bukhari mentioned these reports to show that no disagreement has been transmitted from the Companions regarding the permissibility of muzaraah, especially among the people of Madinah.Ibn Abbas and Zayd bin Thabit said that muzaraah is not forbidden outright, but is only forbidden when disputes arise over it. If the muzaraah arrangement is for a general share of what comes out of the land, without restricting it to a specific portion, then it is permissible. Likewise, it is permissible if it is in exchange for something known, such as gold or silver.Khattabi said, "Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Khuzayma has given a thorough and excellent account of this subject, and he composed a treatise on muzaraah in which he discussed the defects of the hadiths reported concerning it. Muzaraah for half, a third, or a quarter, or according to whatever terms the two partners mutually agree upon, is permissible, provided the shares are known and there are no invalid conditions attached. This has been the practice of Muslims throughout the lands of Islam, in every region of the earth, east and west. I do not know of ever having seen or heard of the people of any town or region inhabited by Muslims abandoning this practice." End of Khattabi's statement.I say, the prohibition against leasing land is thus confined to invalid conditions, such as excepting the madhyanat, which are the water channels, and similar things, such as the condition of qasara, which is what remains of the grain in the ear after threshing, or aqbal al-jadawil and other such old conditions. The same applies if new conditions are stipulated that involve gharar, uncertainty, or gambling, from which disputes and conflicts between the two parties would arise. This is what is not permissible.As for the schools of jurisprudence, they contain difficulties, since two conflicting views have been transmitted from a single person, and conflicting conditions have likewise been transmitted from some scholars. For this reason, I have avoided going into them here.