Khadīj—who narrated the hadith from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—that “the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—did not prohibit them from leasing it for a specified, guaranteed consideration; he only prohibited them from the form of sharecropping they had been practicing.”

All the hadith jurists who compiled its various chains of transmission—including Ahmad ibn Hanbal and all his followers, early and later alike; Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh; Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba; Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd al-Hāshimī; Abū Khaythama Zuhayr ibn Harb; most of the Kufan jurists, such as Sufyān al-Thawrī and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abī Laylā; Abū Yūsuf and Muhammad, the two disciples of Abū Hanīfa; al-Bukhārī, the author of the Sahih; Abū Dāwūd; the great majority of the later hadith jurists, such as Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Khuzayma, al-Khattābī, and others; the Zāhirīs; and most of Abū Hanīfa’s followers—held that sharecropping, leasing, and similar arrangements are permissible. In this they followed the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—the practice of his caliphs and Companions, the way of the early Muslims, and the practice of the majority of Muslims. They also clarified the meanings of the hadiths that appear to conflict on this subject.

One instance is the arrangement made by the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—with the people of Khaybar, which his caliphs continued after him until Umar expelled them. Ibn Umar said, “The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—entered into an arrangement with the people of Khaybar for half of whatever fruits or crops it produced.” Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim related it. They also both related from Ibn Umar that “the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—entrusted Khaybar to its people on the condition that they work and cultivate it, receiving half of whatever it produced.” This is al-Bukhārī’s wording. Muslim’s wording is: “When Khaybar was conquered, the Jews asked the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—to allow them to remain there on the condition that they work it for half of whatever fruits and crops it produced, and