Section
Those who dispute our position on the permissibility of orchard sharecropping maintain that the Messenger of Allah’s arrangement with the Jews of Khaybar was abrogated by his prohibition of agricultural sharecropping, known as mukhābarah. They claim that this word is derived from Khaybar and that the prohibition therefore concerns the arrangement practised there. This is incorrect. The names of contracts involving an exchange are not derived from the places where they occur. This differs from such expressions as athama (“he went to Tihāmah”) and anjada (“he went to Najd”), for established Arabic usage describes a person by reference to the place he enters; contracts involving an exchange are another matter. Moreover, the Arabs knew mukhābarah before Islam: it was their term for leasing land in return for a share of its produce. Furthermore, the Companions continued to practise orchard sharecropping after the Prophet. Their claim is therefore untenable on every count.
Section
They also sought to explain away the hadith concerning orchard sharecropping by claiming that the people of Khaybar were slaves belonging to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Muslims, because Allah Most High had granted them Khaybar and its inhabitants as spoils without battle. This, they argue, made orchard sharecropping between him and them permissible in return for a share of the fruit. It also made it valid to estimate their fruit and for the estimator to offer them the choice of either undertaking to deliver the Muslims’ share according to his estimate, or having him undertake to deliver their share, as related in the hadith.
This is unsound, and we have several answers to it. Among them is that Abd Allāh ibn Rawāhah used to estimate their yield. They said to him, “You have assessed us too highly, Ibn Rawāhah.” He replied, “If you wish, you may have it and guarantee the Muslims’ share; or, if you wish, I shall have it and guarantee your share.” Yet according to their own position, such a guarantee between a master and his slave is invalid, since they hold that a slave cannot own property: whatever he possesses belongs to his master.
Moreover, selling fruit still on the date palms against its estimated yield, with delivery deferred until harvest, constitutes muzābanah. This is impermissible except within the exemption established by the Sunnah for sales of ʿarāyā involving five wasqs, or less than five wasqs.
His statement in this hadith—“If you wish, you may have it and guarantee the Muslims’ share; or, if you wish, I shall have it and guarantee your share”—was, Allah knows best, among the practices abrogated when usury was abolished, since that came later. Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “Among the last things Allah revealed to His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was the verse concerning usury. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, died without explaining it, so shun usury and anything doubtful.”
It has also been said that Ibn Rawāhah estimated the yield only to determine the amount of zakat due from the Muslims, just as an estimate is made