Accordingly, these fixed-payment arrangements for the winter orchards of Damascus, which contain both land and trees, are valid. Even if the written document stipulates a lease of the land and a fruit-sharing arrangement for tending the trees, what the parties intended and agreed upon is the fixed-payment arrangement mentioned above. What counts in contracts is the terms agreed upon by the contracting parties, and their intentions are taken into account. The transaction involving the sale of fruit before its ripeness becomes apparent, which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—forbade, is the sale of the fruit alone, as vineyard produce is sold in Damascus, with the seller remaining responsible for the cultivation and work. These fixed-payment arrangements, by contrast, resemble leases.

He was asked:

Someone leased out open land amounting to four shares of the orchard farm and the circular reed bed. Is it permissible for him to include the reed bed in the lease of the open land corresponding to his aforementioned share?

He replied:

It is permissible to lease land where reeds grow so that the tenant may plant reeds there. Likewise, it is permissible to lease a reed bed so that the tenant may tend and water it. The ground containing its roots is comparable to land that someone waters so that herbage will grow for him without sowing seed.