Since all the Emigrants practiced sharecropping, as did the Rightly Guided Caliphs and the leading Companions and Successors, without anyone voicing an objection, there could be no stronger consensus than this. Indeed, if there is any consensus in the world, this is it—especially since all those who gave the Pledge of Ridwān practiced sharecropping during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—and continued to do so after him until Umar expelled the Jews to Taymā.

Those who held sharecropping and crop-sharing for orchards to be invalid sought to explain this away through untenable interpretations. One such claim was that the Jews were slaves of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—and the Muslims. They therefore likened this arrangement to the fixed-payment arrangement between a slave and his master.

It is known through mass-transmitted reports, however, that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—made a peace settlement with them and did not enslave them. They remained free until Umar expelled them. The Prophet neither sold any of them nor permitted any Muslim to enslave any one of them.

Another claim was: “This was a transaction with disbelievers, so it does not follow that it is permissible with Muslims.” This is untenable, for Khaybar had become a territory of Islam, and the Muslims unanimously agree that whatever invalid transactions are prohibited among Muslims are likewise prohibited, within a territory of Islam, between Muslims and people protected by covenant. Moreover, we have already mentioned that the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—arranged such transactions between the Emigrants and the Helpers; that Muādh ibn Jabal entered into such arrangements with the people of Yemen during the Prophet’s lifetime, after they had embraced Islam; and that the Companions likewise entered into such arrangements. Sound analogy also requires their permissibility, as do the general texts of the Quran and sunnah that establish permissibility or negate hardship, together with the presumption of continuity. This is demonstrated in several ways.

First, this transaction is a partnership; it is not like an ordinary contract of hire or lease. The resulting yield is produced through the use of two resources: what one party contributes, such as his labor and cattle, and what the other contributes, such as his land and trees,