land should cultivate it or let someone else cultivate it, and should not lease it out.’” The reports from Jābir do not differ on this point, whereas those from Rāfi' ibn Khadīj vary considerably. He is reported to have said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Whoever has land should cultivate it, let his brother cultivate it, or leave it uncultivated.” This resembles Jābir’s hadith. He is also reported to have related that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Whoever has land should cultivate it or let his brother cultivate it, and should not lease it out for a third, a quarter, or food.” This indicates, by implication, that leasing it for specified payments other than food is permissible.
He is also reported to have related that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “Only three kinds of people may cultivate land: a man who owns land and cultivates it; a man who has been granted the use of land and cultivates what he has been granted; or a man who has leased land for gold or silver.” The apparent meaning of this is that leasing land is permissible only for gold and silver.
Other reports include his prohibition, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, of muhāqalah and mukhābarah—that is, leasing land in return for food or for what it produces. They also include his prohibition, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, of sharecropping, meaning leasing land in return for a share of its produce. Yet his entrusting the land and date palms of Khaybar to its Jews, on condition that they tend them and cultivate the land in return for half its produce, apparently conflicts with his prohibition of sharecropping.
One group of scholars therefore held that leasing land is not permissible at all, whether for gold, silver, or anything else. They understood the reports of the Prophet’s prohibition of leasing farmland in a general sense and set aside the reports whose apparent meanings conflicted with it. This is the position of Tāwūs, and Ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, adopted it later in life. It is related that he used to lease out his land until he learned that Rāfi' ibn Khadīj was reporting “that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had forbidden leasing farmland; he therefore ceased leasing it out.” This is difficult to sustain on examination, for a specific text takes precedence