on estimating fruit yields. Abū Umar ibn al-Qattān used to say that, according to al-Mudawwana, sharecropping is permissible for jasmine, roses and cotton, whether or not their owner is unable to tend them, unlike cucurbit crops and field crops. This is a far-fetched interpretation, unsupported by any evidence. Sound analogy provides no basis for distinguishing cotton from field crops, cucurbit crops and sugar cane in permitting sharecropping without the owner’s inability to tend them, since none of these plants is perennial. Jasmine and roses, by contrast, are perennial, so there should be no disagreement that, according to Mālik’s school, sharecropping is permissible for jasmine and roses even when their owner is able to tend them.

If someone were to say that sharecropping is permissible for cucurbit crops, cotton and similar plants even when their owner is able to tend them, unlike field crops, sugar cane and similar plants, that view would have some justification. The produce of the former is picked from the plants, making it resemble the fruit of perennial plants. Field crops, sugar cane and similar plants, however, can be harvested only by cutting down the plants themselves, which distinguishes them from the fruit of perennial plants. Nevertheless, they have not expressed this view, nor is it recorded from them. The statement in al-Mudawwana, “There is no harm in sharecropping for jasmine, roses and cotton,” does not require that all three be treated alike by permitting sharecropping even when their owner is able to tend them. It may mean that sharecropping is permissible for all three when the owner is unable to tend the cotton among them.

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Sharecropping for any non-perennial plant is not permissible, whether for several years or a single year, unless it has sprouted and become established, just as with field crops, and before it becomes lawful to sell.

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Sharecropping is not permissible for any vegetables, because they become lawful to sell once they have sprouted and become established. Ibn Dīnār permitted sharecropping for them. His meaning is that this is permissible once they have sprouted but before they become established, in accordance with the view permitting sharecropping for field crops once they have sprouted but before they become established. Once vegetables have sprouted and become established, they may be sold, and sharecropping is not permissible for produce that may lawfully be sold.

There is disagreement concerning radishes and isfanāriyya. In al-Mudawwana, he classified both as vegetables for the purpose of the rules governing price reductions for crop damage. According to his ruling on them, therefore, sharecropping is not permissible