Book of Sharecropping (muzāraʿa) and Crop-Irrigation Partnership (musāqāh)
541 — They unanimously agree that leasing land for a fixed period in return for gold or silver is permissible. Tāwūs and al-Ḥasan alone dissented, deeming it disliked.
542 — They unanimously agree that if a man entrusts his date-palm trees to another under a musāqāh contract for one-third, one-quarter, or one-half of the produce, that is lawful (1). Al-Nuʿmān rejected any agreement in which the owner receives a portion of the yield from planted trees.
Book of Istibrāʾ (Uterine Clearance)
543 — They unanimously agree that a man may not have intercourse with a captive slave-girl he owns if she is pregnant, until she has given birth.
544 — They unanimously agree that waiving the istibrāʾ waiting period by mutual stipulation (muwāḍaʿa) is invalid. Mālik ibn Anas alone held that such a stipulation is valid, whether one approves of it or not.
545 — They unanimously agree that if a woman comes into a man’s ownership while her husband is still residing in enemy territory, her former marriage is thereby annulled, and—after the istibrāʾ period—it becomes lawful for her new owner to have intercourse with her.
(1) Ibn Qudama likewise reported the scholarly consensus on this point in his work al-Mughni, 5/126: “Musāqāh is when a man entrusts his trees to another who undertakes their irrigation and all other required care in return for an agreed-upon share of the harvest. The contract is called musāqāh (literally, ‘mutual watering’) because, in the Hijaz, trees need frequent watering drawn from wells. Its permissibility rests on both the Sunnah and the unanimous agreement of the jurists. As for the Sunnah, Abdullah b. Umar relates that ‘the Messenger of Allah ﷺ contracted with the people of Khaybar for half of whatever the land produced, whether fruit or grain’—an authentic report agreed upon by Bukhari and Muslim. Concerning consensus, Abu Jaʿfar Muhammad b. Ali b. al-Husayn b. Ali b. Abi Talib, quoting his forefathers, said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ dealt with the people of Khaybar on the basis of one-half; then Abu Bakr, ʿUmar, ʿUthman, and ʿAli followed the same practice, and to this day their heirs continue to give one-third or one-quarter. The Rightly Guided Caliphs applied this throughout their rule, and it became well-known with no dissent—hence it constitutes consensus.’”