369 — (It is authentically established that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited leasing land and taking rent or a share in return for it. This was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) by two veterans of Badr, Rāfi ibn Khadīj, Jābir, Abū Saīd, Abū Hurayrah, and Ibn Umar. All of them narrated a general prohibition from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) against leasing land—see al-Muhallā, vol. 8, p. 212.)
Authentic. The hadith of Rāfi was documented previously under nos. (355, 364, 365), and the hadith of Jābir under no. (361). As for the hadith of the two veterans of Badr and that of Ibn Umar, they are one and the same hadith, narrated by Muslim and others; I documented it in al-Irwā (1471). As for the hadith of Abū Saīd, Muslim (5/21) narrated from him that he said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited muzābanah and muhāqalah . . . Muhāqalah means leasing land.” As for the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, Muslim likewise narrated it with the wording: He said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited muhāqalah and muzābanah.”
I say: Although some of these hadiths state the prohibition without qualification, others—such as the hadith of Rāfi, when all its narrations are considered together—show that the prohibition applies when an invalid stipulation is present that would ordinarily lead to dispute. The author explained this in the present chapter, “Invalid Sharecropping.” This is further demonstrated by the fact that one of the narrators of these hadiths—Rāfi himself—explicitly stated, as noted above, that there is no harm in leasing land for a specified, known sum of dirhams or dinars. Indeed, this was explicitly traced back to the Prophet in the hadith of Thābit: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited sharecropping, instructed that land be leased, and said: ‘There is no harm in it.’” This was cited previously under no. (364). It therefore provides an explicit refutation of the author’s quotation from Ibn Hazm prohibiting the leasing of land. Consider this carefully.
370 — (It is reported in al-Sahīh that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited selling fruit in fields or gardens before signs of its ripeness appeared and it was known to be free from damage