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 Quran 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 Quran,
or the stones is two-thirds or more, and the value of the decoration
is one-third or less."