Malik said, "Share-cropping is also permitted inany 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 isnormally permitted if the fruit is sound and the good condition isclear and it is halal to sell it. He must share-crop in it the nextyear. If a man waters fruit whose good condition is clear and it ishalal to sell it, and he picks it for the owner, for a share of thecrop, it is not sharecropping. It is similar to him being paid indirhams and dinars. Share-cropping is what is between pruning thepalms and when the fruit becomes sound and its sale is halal."
Malik said, "If some one makes a share-cropping contract for fruittrees before the condition becomes clear and its sale is halal, it isshare-cropping and is permitted . "
Malik said, "Uncultivatedland must not be involved in a share-cropping contract. That isbecause it is halal for the owner to rent it for dinars and dirhams orthe equivalent for an accepted price."
Malik said, "As for aman who gives his uncultivated earth for a third or a fourth of whatcomes out of it, that is an uncertain transaction because crops may bescant one time and plentiful another time. It may perish completelyand the owner of the land will have abandoned a set rent which wouldhave been good for him to rent the land for. He takes an uncertainsituation, and does not know whether or not it will be satisfactory.This is disapproved. It is like a man having someone travel for himfor a set amount, and then saying, 'Shall I give you a tenth of theprofit of the journey as your wage?' This is not halal and must not bedone."
Malik summed up,"A man must not hire out himself orhis land or his ship unless for a set amount."
Malik said, "Adistinction is made between sharecropping in palms and in cultivatedland because the owner of the palms cannot sell the fruit until itsgood condition is clear. The owner of the land can rent it when it isuncultivated with nothing on it."
Malik said, "What is donein our community about palms is that they can also be share-croppedfor three and four years, and less or more than that."
Maliksaid, "That is what I have heard. Any fruit trees like that are in theposition of palms. Contracts for several years are permissible for thesharecropper as they are permissible in the palms."
Maliksaid about the owner, "He does not take anything additional from theshare-cropper in the way of gold or silver or crops which increaseshim. That is not good. The share-cropper also must not take from theowner of the garden anything additional which will increase him ofgold, silver, crops or anything. Increase beyond what is stipulated inthe contract is not good. It is also not good for the lender of aqirad 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 hireenters it. Hire must never occur in a situation which has uncertaintyin it."
Malik spoke about a man who gave land to another manin a share-cropping contract in which there were palms, vines, or thelike of that of fruit trees and there was also uncultivated land init. He said, "If the uncultivated land is secondary to the fruittrees, either in importance or in size of land, there is no harm inshare-cropping. That is if the palms take up two-thirds of the land ormore, and the uncultivated land is a third or less. This is becausewhen the land that the fruit trees take up is secondary to theuncultivated land and the cultivated land in which the palms, vines orthe like is a third or less, and the uncultivated land is two-thirdsor more, it is permitted to rent the land and share-cropping in it isharam."
"One of the practices of people is to give outsharecropping contracts on property with fruit trees when there isuncultivated land in it, and to rent land while there are fruit treeson it, just as a Qur'an or sword which has some embellishment on it ofsilver is sold for silver, or a necklace or ring which have stones andgold in them are sold for dinars. These sales continue to bepermitted. People buy and sell by them. Nothing described orinstituted has come on that which if exceeded, makes it haram, and iffallen below makes it halal. What is done in our community about thatis what people practise and permit among themselves. That is, if thegold or silver is secondary to what it is incorporated in, it ispermitted 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 decorationis one-third or less."