on land for a share of its crops, or entrusting him with money for a share of the profit. The fruit is thus treated as growth and gain produced by one party’s labour and the other’s property. In the sale of fruit prohibited by the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, however, the buyer does no work at all to produce it; rather, all the work falls to the seller. Thus, leasing land and trees to obtain fruit and crops is like leasing land to obtain crops.
The third point:
Fruit is treated like benefits and yields in endowments, loans for use, and similar arrangements. Trees may therefore be endowed so that the beneficiaries of the endowment benefit from their fruit, just as land may be endowed so that they benefit from its yield. It is also permissible to grant someone the fruit of trees, just as it is permissible to lend a mount for riding, lend a house for use, or lend a milk-producing animal for its milk.
All these arrangements involve gratuitously granting the growth and benefit of property. Giving someone a property to live in is like giving him an animal to ride, trees whose fruit he may harvest, land to cultivate, or a she-camel or ewe whose milk he may drink. These benefits may be the subject of gratuitous contracts, whether the underlying asset is rendered inalienable, as in an endowment, or not. They may also be the subject of partnership contracts; likewise, they may be the subject of contracts involving an exchange for consideration.
If it is objected:
“This entails making tangible assets the subject of a lease, whereas a lease is a contract for benefits, not tangible assets. Hiring a wet nurse is permitted only as an exception to analogical reasoning.”
The reply is:
There are two answers.