Chapter

Sharecropping is valid when a specified proportion of what the land produces is assigned to its owner or to the worker, with the remainder belonging to the other party. It is not a condition that the seed and seedlings be supplied by the owner of the land. This is the customary practice of people.

His statement, “Chapter: Sharecropping is valid when a specified proportion [is assigned]”: sharecropping is when someone gives land to another to cultivate in return for a share of the crop.

The difference between it and musaqah is that musaqah concerns trees, whereas sharecropping concerns crops. The difference between trees and crops is that whatever has fruit, a trunk, and branches is called a tree, while that which does not is called a crop.

Examples of crops include wheat, maize, barley, rice, and the like.

Its permissibility is part of the wisdom of the Sacred Law and the ease afforded by Islam. A person may have uncultivated land which he is unable to farm, while, on the other hand, there may be workers who have no means of earning a livelihood. They take this land and cultivate it, bringing benefit both to the landowner and to the worker. There is no doubt that this is among the merits of Islam.

His statement, “Sharecropping is valid when a specified proportion [is assigned]”: know that everything which is valid is permissible. That is, when it is said that something is valid, the meaning is that it is permissible, because validity is consequential to permissibility in a legal ruling, not in a positive-law ruling.

Is everything prohibited invalid?

The answer is that one must examine the matter. If the prohibition relates to the act itself, then it is invalid; but if it relates to an external matter, then it is valid. For example, intercepting incoming traders is prohibited, and purchasing from such traders is unlawful, yet the sale is valid, because the prohibition does not relate to uncertainty regarding the item sold, nor to usury; rather, it relates to