Section on Tree-Planting Contracts
Tree-planting arrangements fall into three categories.
The first is a contract of hire. For example, a landowner might say: “Plant this land for me with grapevines, fig trees, peach trees, or the like, and you will receive such-and-such.” If the landowner supplies the saplings, there is no question that this is permissible, whether or not he specifies how many are to be planted, since this is commonly understood. The size of the saplings must, however, be specified, because the effort required varies accordingly, unless the parties enter into the arrangement on the basis of an established custom that makes such specification unnecessary.
If the planter supplies the saplings, the arrangement raises the same difficulty as hiring a builder to construct a house with bricks and plaster supplied by the builder. It combines a contract of hire with an advance-payment sale, whose rules differ when a particular worker is engaged. An advance-payment sale requires a specified delivery date and payment of the price in advance, whereas a particular worker may not be paid his fee until he has begun the work for which a deadline has been fixed.
It is therefore impermissible to hire a particular worker to plant trees on condition that he supply the saplings, if they have a monetary value, unless three conditions are met: the fee is paid in advance; work begins immediately; and the planting requires a long period, during which the saplings supplied early become due in relation to those supplied later.
If, however, he engages the planter under a contract that makes the work an obligation upon him without requiring his personal services, on condition that he supply saplings having a monetary value, this is permissible. Such a contract is governed by the same rules as an advance-payment sale. Thus, if he pays the fee in advance and specifies a date for the planting—for example, saying, “I engage you to plant this land in such-and-such a month for such-and-such a sum, with the saplings supplied by you”—the arrangement is permissible. This is the meaning of the statement in al-Mudawwana by an authority other than Ibn al-Qāsim: “If this is undertaken as a contracted obligation, without stipulating the personal work of a particular man, there is no objection, provided that payment is made in advance.”
The second category is a reward-based arrangement. For example, he might say: “Plant this land for me with fig trees, grapevines, or the like, and you will receive such-and-such for every fruit that grows.” This is permissible under the rules governing a purely reward-based contract.