With the Hadith
Prohibition of Leasing Land for Agriculture
We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere, in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith." We begin with the best greeting: Peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
On the authority of Abu Hurairah, may God be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Whoever has land, let him cultivate it or grant it to his brother. If he refuses, let him keep his land." Narrated by Al-Bukhari.
And on the authority of Jabir bin Abdullah, who said: "The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade taking payment or a share for land." Narrated by Muslim.
It is stated in Al-Nawawi's commentary, with a slight modification: {…The scholars differed regarding renting land. Tawus and Al-Hasan Al-Basri said: It is not permissible under any circumstances, whether it is rented for food, gold, silver, or a portion of its crops, due to the general prohibition of renting land. Al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa, and many others said: It is permissible to rent it for gold, silver, food, clothing, and all other things, whether they are of the same kind as what is grown in it or not. However, it is not permissible to rent it for a portion of what comes out of it, such as a third or a quarter, which is al-mukhabarah. It is also not permissible to stipulate for him the cultivation of a specific piece. Rabi'ah said: It is only permissible for gold and silver. Malik said: It is permissible for gold, silver, and other things except food. Ahmad, Abu Yusuf, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, a group of Malikis, and others said: It is permissible to rent it for gold and silver, and it is permissible to sharecrop for a third, a quarter, and other things. Ibn Surayj, Ibn Khuzaymah, and Al-Khattabi said this…}
Dear listeners: What we see is that it is not permissible for the owner of the land to lease his land for agriculture at all, whether he owns its substance and its usufruct together, or owns only its usufruct. That is, whether the land is 'ushriyyah (tithed) or kharajiyyah (taxed), and whether the payment is money or something else. It is also not permissible to lease the land for agriculture for anything of what it produces of food or other things, nor for anything that comes out of it at all, because it is all rent, and renting land for agriculture is not permissible at all. It is stated in Sahih Al-Bukhari that the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: {Whoever has land, let him cultivate it or grant it to his brother. If he refuses, let him keep his land}. It is stated in Sahih Muslim: {The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade taking payment or a share for land}. It is stated in Sunan al-Nasa'i: {The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade renting land. We said: O Messenger of God, then we rent it for something of the grain. He said: No. He said: We used to rent it for straw. He said: No. He said: We used to rent it for what is on the spring of the irrigator. He said: No. Cultivate it or grant it to your brother}. Al-rabee' is the small river, meaning the valley. That is, we used to rent it for the cultivation of the part that is on the rabee', that is, on the side of the water. Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Nafi' that Abdullah ibn Umar narrated from Rafi' ibn Khudayj: {That the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade renting land}. Ibn Umar went to Rafi', and I went with him to ask him. He said: {The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade renting farms}. Al-Bukhari narrated on the authority of Salim that Abdullah ibn Umar stopped renting land.
These hadiths are explicit in the prohibition of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, from leasing land. Although the prohibition indicates merely a request to refrain, the context here indicates that the request is definitive. They said to the Messenger: We rent it for something of the grain. He said: No. Then they said to him: We rent it for straw. He said: No. Then they said: We used to rent it on the rabee'. He said: No. Then he confirmed that by saying: {Cultivate it or grant it to your brother}. This is clear in its insistence on the prohibition, and it is for emphasis. In addition, the emphasis in Arabic is either verbal by repeating the word, or semantic. Here, the word of prohibition has been repeated, indicating emphasis. As for the Messenger leasing the land of Khaybar for half, it is not from this category, because the land of Khaybar was trees and not smooth land, as evidenced by what Ibn Ishaq narrated in the biography on the authority of Abdullah bin Abi Bakr {that the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, used to send to the people of Khaybar Abdullah bin Rawahah as an appraiser between the Muslims and the Jews, and he would appraise them}, then Abdullah bin Rawahah was afflicted in Mu'tah, may God have mercy on him. Jabbar bin Sakhr bin Umayya bin Khansa', the brother of Bani Salama, was the one who appraised them after Abdullah bin Rawahah. The appraiser is the one who estimates the fruit while it is on its roots before it is harvested. This is explicit that the land of Khaybar is trees and not smooth land. As for what is in it of cultivation, it is less than the area of the trees, so it is subordinate to it. Therefore, the land of Khaybar is not from the category of leasing land, but rather from the category of al-musaqat (watering agreement), and al-musaqat is permissible. Moreover, after the prohibition of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, the Companions refrained from leasing land, including Abdullah bin Umar, indicating that they understood the prohibition of leasing land. However, the prohibition of leasing land is only if its lease is for agriculture. As for if its lease is for other than agriculture, then it is permissible, as it is permissible for a person to lease land to be a pasture, a resting place, or a warehouse for his goods, or to benefit from it in a specific way other than agriculture, because the prohibition of leasing land is focused on leasing it for agriculture, as taken from the authentic hadiths. These rulings for lands and what is related to them clarify the manner in which the Lawgiver restricted the Muslim when he works to develop his property through agriculture.
Dear listeners, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
