The Book of Musāqāh

A musāqāh contract is valid when concluded by a person who has legal capacity, and—through a guardian—on behalf of a minor or one who is mentally incapacitated. By default it concerns date-palms and grape-vines, although Imām al-Shāfiʿī’s earlier opinion extends it to every fruit-bearing tree.

Mukhābarah is invalid; it means cultivating the land for a share of its produce while the seed is supplied by the worker. Muzāraʿah is likewise invalid, being the same arrangement except that the seed comes from the owner.

If there is unused ground between the palms, a muzāraʿah on that space may lawfully be combined with a musāqāh on the palms, provided the same laborer undertakes both and it would be impracticable to irrigate the palms and cultivate the vacant ground separately. The sounder view adds that the two contracts must not be separated, that the muzāraʿah may not be stipulated first, that a large vacant area is treated like a small one, that the respective shares of fruit and grain need not be equal, and that a mukhābarah may not be appended to a musāqāh.

If a plot is set aside solely for muzāraʿah, all its yield belongs to the owner, who must then pay the worker the going wage for his labor, beasts of burden, and tools. A legitimate way for both parties to share the produce without wages becoming due is for the owner to hire the worker in return for half the seed—so that he sows that half on the owner’s behalf—while lending him half the land; or for the owner to hire him for half the seed and half the land’s usufruct, allowing him to plant the remaining half of the seed in the remaining half of the land.