rather, the Companions practised it during his lifetime and after his death. The hadith concerning mukhābara was narrated only by Rāfi‘ ibn Khadīj and Jābir, and both explained what people used to do.

A khabīr is a farmer, so called because he tills the land. Some jurists have distinguished between the two terms for sharecropping, mukhābara and muzāra‘a. They define “mukhābara” as an arrangement in which the cultivator supplies the seed, and “muzāra‘a” as one in which the landowner supplies it. They say that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, prohibited mukhābara, not muzāra‘a.

This view, too, is weak. We have already cited the authentic report that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, “forbade muzāra‘a,” just as he “forbade mukhābara” and “forbade leasing land.” In their basic linguistic meanings, these expressions encompass both the practices he prohibited and those he did not. Their application was restricted to what people actually practised because customary usage, in both speech and practice, narrowed their scope, and because of the verbal contextual indicators: the definite article referring to a known practice and the question posed by the questioner. Otherwise, the lexicographers have stated that mukhābara means muzāra‘a, and the derivation of the word supports this.

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Among those who permit sharecropping are some who stipulate that the landowner must supply the seed. They say: This is muzāra‘a. But if the cultivator supplies the seed, it is not