The mukhābarah prohibited by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was specifically their practice of stipulating that the landowner receive the crop from a particular plot. This is what was prohibited, as explicitly explained in the authentic hadith.

As for the seed stock supplied for the land, it is not simply a loan, as some people suppose. An unrestricted loan becomes the borrower’s property, which he may dispose of as he wishes. Whoever receives this seed stock, however, is required to sow it in the land and may not use it otherwise. It has thus been provided to sustain the land, so that everyone who uses the land, whether grantee or cultivator, may benefit [from it] (1), since the land cannot be properly maintained without it. It is comparable to a water cistern on the land from which people benefit. Hence the saying: “Whoever takes over with seed stock must leave an equivalent stock when he departs.” Likewise, if the cistern is full of water when you arrive, fill it when you leave.

The fact is that the ruler may require those contracting for the land to leave seed stock on it, for this serves the public interest. If the first has left seed stock there and the second needs it, and the responsible authority considers it appropriate to allot the first a proportionate payment for it in accordance with the public interest, that is permissible.

If the established custom is that whoever takes over with seed stock leaves an equivalent stock when he departs, and whoever supplies seed stock of his own receives it back in full at a later date, then the ruler’s grant of the land was subject to this