780 – Hanzalah ibn Qays reports: “I asked Rafiʿ ibn Khadij (may Allah be pleased with him) about leasing land for gold and silver. He replied, ‘There is nothing wrong with it. What people used to do in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was to lease land for the mādhiyānāt, the heads of the water-channels, or for particular sections of the crop. One part might be ruined while another remained intact, or this would survive while that perished, and leasing was practiced in no other way. For that reason it was forbidden. But when the payment is a specified, guaranteed amount, there is no objection.’ ”
Narrated by Muslim. This narration explains what was left general in the agreed-upon report that simply prohibits leasing land. (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• Khadij: Al-Fattānī notes in al-Mughnī that Khadij is pronounced with an open khāʾ and a kasrah on the un-dotted dāl.
• Kirāʾ al-arḍ (leasing land): kirāʾ, with an extended vowel, means “rent.” It is originally a verbal noun from the verb karaytahu, following the pattern of qatala.
• “Innamā kāna …”: this clause provides the rationale for permitting the lease of land for a fixed sum and for forbidding its lease in return for a specified portion of the produce, as the examples show.
• Mādhiyānāt: with a dotted dhāl pronounced with kasrah (some read it with fatḥah), followed by yāʾ, then alif, nūn, alif, and tāʾ. It is the plural of mādhiyah, referring to what grows on the riverbank or the edges of small waterways. The word is not classical Arabic; it is of Sawādī (Iraqi) usage.