Agriculture — Hadith 520

English Translation

Narrated Rafi' bin Khadij: We worked on farms more than anybody else in Medina. We used to rent the land at the yield of specific delimited portion of it to be given to the landlord. Sometimes the vegetation of that portion was affected by blights etc., while the rest remained safe and vice versa, so the Prophet forbade this practice. At that time gold or silver were not used (for renting the land). If they provided the seeds, they would get so-and-so much. Al-Hasan said, "There is no harm if the land belongs to one but both spend on it and the yield is divided between them." Az-Zuhri had the same opinion. AlHasan said, "There is no harm if cotton is picked on the condition of having half the yield." Ibrahim, Ibn Siain, 'Ata', Al-Hakam, Az-Zuhri and Qatada said, "There is no harm in giving the yarn to the weaver to weave into cloth on the basis that one-third or one-fourth (or any other portion) of the cloth is given to the weaver for his labor." Ma'am said, "There is no harm in hiring animals for a definite (fixed) period on the basis that one-third or one-fourth of the products carried by the animals is given to the owner of the animals."