muzāraʿah, with the cultivator supplying the labor. Abū al-Khattāb and his followers said: “According to this report, if the worker supplies the seed, he leases the land in return for a portion of its yield. If the landowner supplies the seed, he hires the worker in return for the share stipulated for him.” He continued: “Accordingly, the provider of the seed is entitled to his share by virtue of his seed, while whatever is received as compensation is received by virtue of the stipulation.”

Their statement that Ahmad’s ruling permitting land to be leased in return for a portion of its yield refers to muzāraʿah in which the cultivator supplies the seed is correct. Sound jurisprudential analysis admits no other interpretation. Moreover, his express permission of the aforementioned lease entails, a fortiori, the permissibility of muzāraʿah. The correct position—indeed, the only tenable one in light of both transmitted evidence and legal reasoning—is that this transaction is permissible without qualification. This is the plain import of Ahmad’s statements, recurrently transmitted from him, and it is the position preferred by a group of his associates.

The first position—whether that of those who require the landowner to supply the seed or that of those who distinguish between an agreement framed as a lease and one framed as muzāraʿah—is as weak as, if not weaker than, the position that equates ijārah in its specific sense with muzāraʿah.

As for clarifying Ahmad’s express ruling: he permitted leasing in return for a portion of the crop only by citing the Prophet’s arrangement (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) with the people of Khaybar. Yet his arrangement with them was muzāraʿah and was not concluded using the wording of a lease. It is therefore inconceivable that Ahmad would permit what the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did only when it was expressed using the wording of [a lease], while prohibiting it when expressed in the familiar terms.

Furthermore, it is established in the Sahīh: “The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) stipulated with the people of Khaybar that they cultivate it at their own expense,” as stated above. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not provide them with seed. If, then, under the arrangement made by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), it was they who sowed it