We had most agricultural land in Medina, and a man would let out his land on condition that he should have what was produced in one portion and the man to whom it was let out should have what was produced in another; but sometimes one portion produced a crop while the other did not, so the Prophet forbade them to do that.
Hanzala b. Qais quoted Rafi‘ b. Khadij to the effect that his two paternal uncles told him they used to let out land in the time of the Prophet for what grew by the streamlets, or for something the owner of the land set aside, but the Prophet forbade them to do that. He asked Rafi’ how the matter would stand if payment were made in dirhams and dinars and he replied that there would be no harm in that. It seemed that what was prohibited was such as people versed in what is allowed and what is prohibited would not permit if they looked into it, because of the risk involved*.
* The objection to such an agreement is that one cannot guarantee beforehand what a particular piece of land will produce.
‘Amr said that he expressed a wish to Ta’us that he would abandon the practice of employing people on land in return for part of the pro-duce, for people asserted that the Prophet had forbidden it. He replied to ‘Amr that he was just giving them something and helping them, adding that the most learned of the people, meaning Ibn ‘Abbas, had informed him that the Prophet did not forbid it, but said, “It is better for one of you to lend to his brother than to take a prescribed sum from him."
We used to employ people to till land for a share of its produce* and see no harm in it till Rafi' b. Khadij asserted that the Prophet forbade it, so we abandoned it on that account.
Muslim transmitted it.
* Mukhabir. From this comes the verbal noun mukhabara. See p. 607.
