Book of Musāqāt, Muzāraʿa, and Lease Contracts
Chapter on the Legal Rulings of Muzāraʿa and Musāqāt

Musāqāt (orchard-cultivation partnerships) and muzāraʿa (crop-sharing agreements) are among the transactions people have practiced since antiquity, owing to their continual need for them. A person may own trees yet lack the ability to tend and exploit them, or he may possess farmland but be unable to cultivate it, while another person has the strength to work but owns neither trees nor land. For the benefit of both parties, therefore, the Sharīʿa has permitted muzāraʿa and musāqāt. Indeed, every lawful transaction in Islam rests upon justice, the realization of benefit, and the prevention of harm.

The jurists define musāqāt as: transferring already planted trees—or saplings together with the land in which they will be planted—to someone who will cultivate, irrigate, and care for them until they bear fruit, on the understanding that the worker receives an undivided share of the produce while the remainder belongs to the owner.

Muzāraʿa is to hand over land to someone who will farm it, or to give land along with seed to someone who will sow and manage it, in return for an undivided share of the harvest, with the balance going to the landowner.

In both musāqāt and muzāraʿa, the stipulated share may be assigned to the owner of the land or trees, with the remainder going to the worker.