The jews
collected for Abdullah pieces of their women's jewellery and said to
him, "This is yours. Go light on us and don't be exact in the
division!"
Abdullah ibn Rawaha said, "O tribe of jews! By
Allah! You are among the most hateful to me of Allah's creation, but
it does not prompt me to deal unjustly with you. What you have offered
as a bribe is forbidden. We will not touch it." They said, "This is
what supports the heavens and the earth."
Malik said, "If a
share-cropper waters the palms and between them there is some
uncultivated land, whatever he cultivates in the uncultivated land is
his."
Malik said, "If the owner of the land makes a condition
that he will cultivate the uncultivated land for himself, that is not
good because the sharecropper does the watering for the owner of the
land and so he increases the owner of the land in property (without
any return for himself)."
Malik said, "If the owner
stipulates that the fruit crop is to be shared between them, there is
no harm in that if all the maintenance of the property - seeding,
watering and case, etc. - are the concern of the sharecropper.
If the share-cropper stipulates that the seeds are the
responsibility of the owner of the property - that is not permitted
because he has stipulated an outlay against the owner of the property.
Share-cropping is conducted on the basis that all the care and expense
is outlayed by the share-cropper, and the owner of the property is not
obliged anything. This is the accepted method of share-cropping."
Malik spoke about a spring which was shared between two men, and
then the water dried up and one of them wanted to work on the spring
and the other said, "I don't have the means to work on it." He said,
"Tell the one who wants to work on the spring, 'Work and expend. All
the water will be yours. You will have its water until your companion
brings you half of what you have spent. If he brings you half of what
you have spent, he can take his share of the water.' The first one is
given all the water, because he has spent on it, and if he does not
reach anything by his work, the other has not incurred any expense."
Malik said, "It is not good for a share-cropper not to expend
anything but his labour and to be hired for a share of the fruit while
all the expense and work is incurred by the owner of the garden,
because the share-cropper does not know what the exact wage is going
to be for his labour, whether it will be little or great."
Malik said, "No-one who lends a qirad or grants a share-cropping
contract, should exempt some of the wealth, or some of the trees from
his agent, because, by that, the agent becomes his hired man. He says,
'I will grant you a share-crop provided that you work for me on such-
and-such a palm - water it and tend it. I will give you a qirad for
such-and-such money provided that you work for me with ten dinars.
They are not part of the qirad I have given you.' That must not be
done and it is not good. This is what is done in our community."
Malik said, "The sunna about what is permitted to an owner of a
garden in share-cropping is that he can stipulate to the share-cropper
the maintenance of walls, cleaning the spring, sweeping the irrigation
canals, pollinating the palms, pruning branches, harvesting the fruit
and such things, provided that the share-cropper has a share of the
fruit fixed by mutual agreement. However, the owner cannot stipulate
the beginning of new work which the agent will start digging a well,
raising the source of a well, instigating new planting, or building a
cistern whose cost is great. That is as if the owner of the garden
said to a certain man, 'Build me a house here or dig me a well or make
a spring flow for me or do some work for me for half the fruit of this
garden of mine,' before the fruit of the garden is sound and it is
halal to sell it. This is the sale of fruit before its good condition
is clear. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, forbade fruit to be sold before its good condition became
clear."
Malik said, "If the fruits are good and their good
condition is clear and selling them is halal and then the owner asks a
man to do one of those jobs for him, specifying the job, for half the
fruit of his garden, for example, there is no harm in that. He has
hired the man for something recognised and known. The man has seen it
and is satisfied with it.
"As for share-cropping, if the
garden has no fruit or little or bad fruit, he has only that. The
labourer is only hired for a set amount, and hire is only permitted on
these terms. Hire is a type of sale. One man buys another man's work
from him. It is not good if uncertainty enters into it because the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade
uncertain transactions."
Malik said, "The sunna in share-
cropping with us is that it can be practised with any kind of fruit
tree, palm, vine, olive tree, pomegranate, peach, and soon. It is
permitted, and there is no harm in it provided that the owner of the
property has a share of the fruit:
Malik said, "Share-cropping is also permitted in
any crop which emerges from the earth if it is a crop which is picked,
and its owner cannot water, work on it and tend it.
"Share-
cropping becomes reprehensible in anything in which share-cropping is
normally permitted if the fruit is sound and the good condition is
clear and it is halal to sell it. He must share-crop in it the next
year. If a man waters fruit whose good condition is clear and it is
halal to sell it, and he picks it for the owner, for a share of the
crop, it is not sharecropping. It is similar to him being paid in
dirhams and dinars. Share-cropping is what is between pruning the
palms and when the fruit becomes sound and its sale is halal."
Malik said, "If some one makes a share-cropping contract for fruit
trees before the condition becomes clear and its sale is halal, it is
share-cropping and is permitted . "
Malik said, "Uncultivated
land must not be involved in a share-cropping contract. That is
because it is halal for the owner to rent it for dinars and dirhams or
the equivalent for an accepted price."
Malik said, "As for a
man who gives his uncultivated earth for a third or a fourth of what
comes out of it, that is an uncertain transaction because crops may be
scant one time and plentiful another time. It may perish completely
and the owner of the land will have abandoned a set rent which would
have been good for him to rent the land for. He takes an uncertain
situation, and does not know whether or not it will be satisfactory.
This is disapproved. It is like a man having someone travel for him
for a set amount, and then saying, 'Shall I give you a tenth of the
profit of the journey as your wage?' This is not halal and must not be
done."
Malik summed up,"A man must not hire out himself or
his land or his ship unless for a set amount."
Malik said, "A
distinction is made between sharecropping in palms and in cultivated
land because the owner of the palms cannot sell the fruit until its
good condition is clear. The owner of the land can rent it when it is
uncultivated with nothing on it."
Malik said, "What is done
in our community about palms is that they can also be share-cropped
for three and four years, and less or more than that."
Malik
said, "That is what I have heard. Any fruit trees like that are in the
position of palms. Contracts for several years are permissible for the
sharecropper as they are permissible in the palms."
Malik
said about the owner, "He does not take anything additional from the
share-cropper in the way of gold or silver or crops which increases
him. That is not good. The share-cropper also must not take from the
owner of the garden anything additional which will increase him of
gold, silver, crops or anything. Increase beyond what is stipulated in
the contract is not good. It is also not good for the lender of a
qirad to be in this position. If such an increase does enter share-
cropping or quirad, it becomes by it hire. It is not good when hire
enters it. Hire must never occur in a situation which has uncertainty
in it."
Malik spoke about a man who gave land to another man
in a share-cropping contract in which there were palms, vines, or the
like of that of fruit trees and there was also uncultivated land in
it. He said, "If the uncultivated land is secondary to the fruit
trees, either in importance or in size of land, there is no harm in
share-cropping. That is if the palms take up two-thirds of the land or
more, and the uncultivated land is a third or less. This is because
when the land that the fruit trees take up is secondary to the
uncultivated land and the cultivated land in which the palms, vines or
the like is a third or less, and the uncultivated land is two-thirds
or more, it is permitted to rent the land and share-cropping in it is
haram."
"One of the practices of people is to give out
sharecropping contracts on property with fruit trees when there is
uncultivated land in it, and to rent land while there are fruit trees
on it, just as a Qur'an or sword which has some embellishment on it of
silver is sold for silver, or a necklace or ring which have stones and
gold in them are sold for dinars. These sales continue to be
permitted. People buy and sell by them. Nothing described or
instituted has come on that which if exceeded, makes it haram, and if
fallen below makes it halal. What is done in our community about that
is what people practise and permit among themselves. That is, if the
gold or silver is secondary to what it is incorporated in, it is
permitted to sell it. That is, if the value of the blade, the Qur'an,
or the stones is two-thirds or more, and the value of the decoration
is one-third or less."
Malik added, "That is what is done in our
community."
Malik said, "A share-cropper cannot employ
workers from the property in other work, and he cannot make that a
stipulation with the one who gives him the share-cropping contract.
Nor is it permitted to one who share-crops to stipulate on the owner
of the property inclusion of slaves for use in the garden who are not
in it when he makes the share-cropping contract."
"Nor must
the owner of the property stipulate on the one who uses his property
for share-cropping that he take any of the slaves of the property and
remove him from the property. The share-cropping of property is based
on the state which it is currently in."
"If the owner of the
property wants to remove one of the slaves of the property, he removes
him before the share-cropping, or if he wants to put someone into the
property, he does it before the share-cropping. Then he grants the
share-cropping contract after that if he wishes. If any of the slaves
die or go off or become ill, the owner of the property must replace
them."