Is an agreement valid where land is given to someone to plant, and the resulting trees are shared equally between the parties?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Sharecropping (Musāqāh)
Primary text
An agreement where land is given to a person for planting, stipulating that the trees resulting from the labor will be shared between the landowner and the planter, is not valid. This is based on the established principle concerning prior agreements where the origin (the trees/land) is stipulated to be shared, which invalidates the contract, similar to stipulating shared ownership of both the land and the crop in a *Muzara'ah* contract.
Supporting text
The opinion of invalidity is held by Malik, Al-Shafi'i, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad, with no known dissent. This ruling contrasts with the possibility of validity if the analogy to *Muzara'ah* is followed, where the sharecropper provides the seed and the resulting crop is shared between the parties.