One objection remains: the Prophet’s words, peace and blessings be upon him,

“Whoever has land should cultivate it or let his brother cultivate it free of charge; otherwise, he should retain it,”

command a person to retain his land if he neither cultivates it nor grants its use free of charge. This would entail prohibiting both leasing and sharecropping, as discussed above.

The answer is that this command conveys encouragement and recommendation, not obligation. Alternatively, it was initially obligatory, to deter them from the invalid leasing arrangements to which they had become accustomed.

This resembles what happened when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade them to eat the meat of domestic donkeys. Concerning the vessels in which they were cooking it, he said:

“Pour out their contents and break them.”

Likewise, when Abū Thaʿlabah al-Khushanī asked him about the utensils of the People of the Book, he said, peace and blessings be upon him:

“If you find others, do not eat from them; but if you find no others, wash them with water.”

This is because, when people become accustomed to a sin, they may not break free of it completely unless they also abandon permissible things closely associated with it. As it has been said:

“A servant does not attain true piety until he places a barrier of lawful things between himself and what is unlawful.”

At other times, however, a person can abandon a sin only gradually, not all at once. Sometimes one approach is needed, and sometimes the other.

Thus, in the Prophet’s Sunnah, we find that someone who might be driven away from obedience is granted concessions in certain matters that enable him to dispense with what is forbidden. By contrast, someone whose faith and patience can be relied upon is directed to refrain from certain things that it is recommended for him to abandon, so that he may pursue what is better more fully. For this reason, it is recommended for one who is confident in his faith