Among those who deemed it permissible were ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, Saʿd ibn Mālik, ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad, ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Ṭāwūs, al-Zuhrī, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, Ibn Sīrīn, Abū Yūsuf, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, Ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Thawrī, al-Bukhārī, Abū Dāwūd, Ibn Khuzaymah, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Surayj, al-Khaṭṭābī, and the Ẓāhirīs.

Al-Nawawī said, “This is the preponderant and preferred opinion, and Muslims in every land and every age have continually practiced share-cropping.”

Proofs cited by those who allow it:

1 – The basic rule concerning contracts is permissibility and validity. A contract is only disallowed when there is a recognised Sharīʿah objection such as ambiguity, excessive uncertainty, undue risk, or injustice to either party. Clear contracts that are free of these defects are approved by the law, which places no restriction on them.

2 – The Prophet ﷺ entered into such an arrangement with the Jews of Khaybar from the time he conquered it until his death. After him, Abū Bakr maintained the agreement, as did ʿUmar during the early part of his caliphate, until he ultimately expelled them. All of this occurred in full view of the Companions, which shows the practice is permissible and was never abrogated.

Among the supporting reports is the ḥadith recorded in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections from Ibn ʿUmar: “The Prophet ﷺ dealt with the people of Khaybar on the basis that half of whatever the land produced of fruit or crops would be theirs, and he said, ‘We will leave you in charge of it for as long as we wish.’ They remained on that basis until ʿUmar expelled them.”

2 – They answer the ḥadiths of Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj by saying that their chains of transmission are inconsistent: at times he narrates from his uncles, at others from Rāfiʿ ibn Zuhayr, and on a third occasion from his own direct hearing. The texts themselves are also variable: sometimes they report a prohibition of “leasing the land,” at other times a prohibition of “stipulating a wage,” and yet others mention a prohibition of “taking a third, a quarter, or a named measure of grain.”