ibn Rāhawayh, who said: Muʿtamir ibn Sulaymān narrated to us: I heard Kulayb ibn Wā’il say:

“I went to Ibn ʿUmar and said, ‘A man approached me who had land and water, but neither seed nor oxen. I took the land in return for half its yield, sowed my own seed, worked it with my own oxen, and divided the yield equally with him—is that acceptable?’

“He replied, ‘That is good.’”

He also related: Hazm’s nephew narrated to us: Yahyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: Saʿīd ibn ʿUbayd narrated to us: I heard Sālim ibn ʿAbdullāh. A man came to him and asked:

“One of us approaches another man and says, ‘I shall bring my seed and oxen and cultivate your land. Whatever Allah causes it to yield, you will have such-and-such a share, and I will have such-and-such a share.’ Is that acceptable?”

He replied, “There is nothing wrong with it; we do it ourselves.”

Rāfiʿ’s relatives likewise reported this. In al-Bukhārī, Rāfiʿ said:

“My paternal uncles told me that, during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, they used to lease land in return for the crops growing along the large waterways, or for something the landowner reserved for himself. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade us to do that.”

Rāfiʿ was then asked, “What about leasing it for dinars and dirhams?”

He replied, “There is nothing wrong with leasing it for dinars and dirhams. The arrangement that was prohibited was one that anyone knowledgeable about what is lawful and unlawful would, upon examining it, disallow because of the risk it involved.”

Usayd ibn Zuhayr said:

“When one of us had no need to cultivate his land himself, he would give it to someone to cultivate in return for a third, a quarter, or half of the yield. He would also stipulate that he receive the crops along three irrigation channels, the grain left in the ears after threshing, and the crops irrigated by the watercourse. Livelihoods were difficult in those days. The cultivator would work the land with iron tools and whatever else Allah willed, and derive some benefit from it.

“Then Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj came to us and said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,