the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) established such arrangements between the Emigrants and the Helpers; that Mu‘ādh ibn Jabal made such arrangements with the people of Yemen after their acceptance of Islam, during the Prophet’s lifetime; and that the Companions practised them. Sound analogy also entails their permissibility, alongside the general provisions of the Quran and Sunnah establishing permissibility or removing hardship, and the presumption of continuity. This is so for several reasons.

First: this transaction is a partnership, not an ordinary contract of hire. The resulting yield comes from the productive use of two underlying resources: those belonging to one party, such as his body and cattle, and those belonging to the other, such as his land and trees. Similarly, spoils of war are obtained through the efforts of the combatants and the use of their horses, while property acquired without battle is obtained through the Muslims’ physical contributions—their strength and support.

Hiring is different: its object is the work or benefit itself. If someone is hired to build, sew, plough land, sow it, or harvest, then once he has completed that work, the employer has obtained what he sought through the contract, and the worker is entitled to his wages. Hence, a binding contract of hire requires the work to be precisely specified, just as a similar requirement applies to an item sold.

Here, the benefit contributed by the worker’s body, cattle, and iron tools is comparable to that contributed by the owner’s land and trees. Neither party seeks merely to obtain the benefit supplied by the other. Rather, both seek what results from combining their contributions. If there is a yield, they share it; if there is none, each has lost the benefit of his own resources. Thus they share in gain and loss, like all other