anything, the landowner takes an equal amount, as well as half the straw. Is this permissible or not?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah. Sharecropping in return for half of what the land produces is permissible, whether the seed comes from the landowner or the worker. This is the correct view, supported by the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the practice of his rightly guided caliphs. For:

“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made an agreement with the people of Khaybar for half of its yield of fruit and crops, on condition that they cultivate it at their own expense.”

This is the position of most of the Companions and their successors. The permissibility of sharecropping on bare land is the position of al-Thawrī, Ibn Abī Laylā, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Abū Yūsuf, Muhammad, the discerning scholars among al-Shāfiʿī’s followers who are versed in hadith, some of Mālik’s followers, and others.

Likewise, according to the sounder of the two views in the school of Ahmad and others, the seed may come from the worker, as in the Prophet’s arrangement with the people of Khaybar, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Comparing this to the capital in a profit-sharing partnership is unsound, for the seed does not return to the person who sows it as the owner’s capital returns to him.

The sharecropping practice prohibited by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was that they entered into agreements stipulating that the owner receive a specified benefit from the land, and this