Anyone who is lent land, granted it as an allotment, or designated as the beneficiary of an endowment of it, and then grows crops on it, must pay the tithe on those crops. If he leases it out, the tithe is payable by the tenant; if he has it cultivated under a sharecropping agreement, the tithe is apportioned between them.

The principle underlying these imams’ position is that the tithe is an obligation attached to the crop. They therefore hold that both the tithe and the land tax may be payable together: the tithe is an obligation attached to the crop, whose recipients are those entitled to zakat, whereas the land tax is an obligation attached to the land, whose recipients are those entitled to fay’ revenues. These are two obligations owed to different recipients on different grounds, so both apply. Likewise, someone who kills a Muslim by mistake owes blood money to the victim’s family and must perform an expiation as a duty owed to Allah. Similarly, someone who kills a privately owned game animal while in the consecrated state of pilgrimage must compensate its owner and pay the prescribed penalty as a duty owed to Allah.

Abū Hanīfah, however, holds that the tithe is an obligation attached to the land, and that two obligations cannot therefore be imposed upon it together. Among the arguments advanced by the majority is that land tax is payable on land capable of cultivation, whether it is cultivated or not, whereas the tithe is payable only on the crop.

The report attributed to the Prophet:

“The tithe and the land tax cannot be combined”

is a fabrication, by unanimous agreement of the hadith scholars.