over a general one. Thus, the reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, permitting the leasing of land for dinars and dirhams qualify his general prohibition of leasing farmland.
Others held that land may be leased only for dinars and dirhams. They cited the report narrated by Rāfi' ibn Khadīj from the Prophet, peace be upon him: “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.” They argued that one cannot go beyond this hadith, given its explicit clarification. Yet their contention is incorrect: the hadith clarifies that leasing land for gold and silver is permissible, but it does not establish that leasing it for anything else is prohibited. For the particle innamā (“only”) is always used in response to a particular circumstance: it denies the ruling in the case that occasioned its use and affirms it in the case expressly mentioned, without indicating that the ruling is denied in every other case.
The evidence for this is the saying of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: “The bond of clientage belongs only to the one who emancipates.” By these words, he, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, denied the bond of clientage to the seller who had stipulated it as a condition upon the buyer who emancipated the slave, since that was the circumstance that occasioned his statement. He thereby affirmed that the bond of clientage belongs to the emancipator. His statement did not, however, establish that no one other than the emancipator could possess that bond. Do you not see that the bond of clientage passes to the emancipator’s children and agnatic relatives, even though they themselves did not emancipate the slave?
Similar examples are the expressions, “The prophet is Muhammad alone,” “The generous man is Joseph alone,” and “The brave man is 'Amr alone.” These do not deny prophethood to anyone other than the Prophet, peace be upon him, generosity to anyone other than Joseph, or courage to anyone other than 'Amr. Rather, they affirm these qualities for those named and deny them to the person who occasioned the statement. The same applies to the question under discussion.
Others held that land may be leased for anything specified, except food. Their evidence is what Rāfi' ibn Khadīj narrated from