the report of Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, recorded by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim:

“They used to stipulate that the landowner would receive the crops of a particular plot, and the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade this.”

These matters have been discussed at length elsewhere, and it has been shown that sharecropping is more lawful than leasing for a specified rent. Muslims have differed over all these arrangements. Sharecropping is founded on fairness: if anything is produced, both parties share it; if nothing is produced, both go without. In leasing, however, the lessor receives the rent while the lessee bears the risk: he may or may not obtain what he seeks. Sharecropping therefore involves less risk than leasing. Nor is sharecropping a contract of hire for a specified task, requiring that the work be performed for a wage. Rather, it is a form of partnership, like a capital-and-labour partnership and similar arrangements. Ahmad regards this category of arrangements as consistent with legal analogy.

He permits an owner to hand over horses, mules, donkeys, or camels to someone who hires them out, with the proceeds shared between the owner and the worker. Reports concerning this appear in Sunan Abī Dāwūd and elsewhere.

He also permits an owner to hand over hunting equipment and animals—falcons, nets, beasts, and the like—to someone who hunts with them, with whatever is obtained shared between the two. He permits handing wheat to someone who grinds it in return for a third or a quarter of it. The same applies to handing flour to someone who makes it into dough, yarn to someone who weaves it, or cloth to someone who sews it, in each case in return for a share of what is produced. The same applies to handing hides to someone who makes them into sandals, although a contrary view has also been reported from him on this matter. Likewise, he permits—according to the stronger of