He was also asked:

A man farms with a cow, using his own earnings, on the sultan’s land or land held by a grantee. He pays the tithe on both his own share and the grantee’s share. Is it permissible for him to steal something without the grantee’s knowledge, or not?

He answered:

If the farmer is a sharecropper—for example, working for a third, a quarter, or half of the crop—he is required to pay the tithe only on his own share. As for the grantee’s share, its tithe is payable by the grantee.

Anyone who says that the farmer must pay the entire tithe while the grantee remains entitled to his share of the crop has contradicted the consensus of the Muslims.

However, scholars hold two views concerning sharecropping:

The first is that it is invalid, that the entire crop belongs to the owner of the seed, who must pay the entire tithe, and that the landowner is entitled to the value of the land. Thus, any land grantee who holds that the farmer must pay the entire tithe must, to be consistent with his position, give him the entire crop and demand from him the value of the land.

The second view—which is the correct one, in accordance with the established Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah