Taʿḍiyah means separation—that is, no partition is to be carried out among them.

When the properties (ribāʿ) are more than one, they will likewise be either of a single kind or of different kinds.

If they are of the same kind, the jurists of the various regions differ. Mālik holds that when the kinds coincide, the properties are divided by appraisal, equalisation, and the casting of lots. Abū Ḥanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī, however, maintain that each parcel must be divided on its own.

Mālik’s rationale is that such a method causes the least harm to the partners that inevitably accompanies division. The other school argues that every parcel has its own legal identity, since the right of pre-emption (shufʿah) attaches to it.

Mālik’s own followers disagree—holding three different views—when the kinds differ in market value or the locations are far apart.

If the properties are of dissimilar kinds—for example, some are houses, others orchards, and others farmland—there is unanimous agreement that they are not to be combined in a single division by lot.

Among the conditions for partitioning productive orchards is that they must not be divided together with their fruit once the fruit has begun to ripen; this is unanimously affirmed within the school, because such a division would amount to selling food for food while it is still on the tree, an arrangement classified as the forbidden transaction of muzābanah.

As for dividing them before ripening appears, Mālik’s disciples differ. Ibn al-Qāsim absolutely forbids it before pollination, on the grounds that it leads to an unequal sale of food for food. For the same reason he claimed that Mālik never allowed the purchase of unripe fruit with other food, whether deferred or immediate. After pollination he allows the division only if one partner stipulates to the other that whatever fruit falls into his lot is included in the partition, whereas any fruit that does not fall into his lot remains jointly owned. The reason, he says, is that the buyer may lawfully stipulate concerning fruit after pollination but not before; it is therefore as though one partner has bought the other’s share of all the fruit that comes to him in the division in exchange for his own share of the fruit that falls to his co-partner, together with the stipulation regarding the fruit.

The procedure for division by lot is as follows. First, the inheritance portions are apportioned and verified. If fractional shares arise, they are multiplied until they become whole numbers. Each plot and every type of planting is then appraised, and equalisation is made on the basis of the smallest share in terms of value; thus one part of a plot may be set equal to three parts of another, according to the respective values and locations of the lands. When the parcels have been divided and equalised in this manner, slips are prepared bearing the partners’ names and the directions of the plots. Whoever’s name appears in a given direction receives the portion located there. Another opinion says that the names are placed among the directions; the one whose name emerges in a direction takes from it, and if his entitlement exceeds that portion it is doubled for him until his full share is complete. This is the procedure for casting lots for shares when slaves are involved.

The jurists have instituted the casting of lots in cases of partition in order to put the partners’ minds at ease, and the Sharīʿah provides several precedents for it, among them the Almighty’s words: “So he cast lots and was one of the losers” (37:141), and His saying