The whole essence of the arrangement of sharecropping in Islamic finance is for a farmer without disposable wealth which could be used to buy farmland or equipment, could still farm and make a living. Also, a farm owner could gain income from his farmland he did not have the time or the income to farm themselves.
Islamic sharecropping is the practice of giving land or both land and seed to a skilled farmer who lacks his own farmland to enable him to work; plant the seeds, water them, and take care of them till maturity in return for a specified portion of the harvest from an unspecified part of the farmland, whilst the rest belongs to the landowner.
Legal evidence for the permissibility of muzara’ah are abound from the traditions of the Prophet (SAW). Ibn Umar narrated that “the prophet concluded a contract with the people of Khaybar for them to utilize the land on the condition that half the harvest of the fruits or plants would be their share. In addition, Imam Muslim also related that “the prophet (SAW) gave the people of Khaybar the date palms and the land of Khaybar on the condition that they will give half of the yield to Muslims”. These two authentic traditions of the Prophet (SAW) validate the practice of muzara’ah in Islam.
According to Imam ibn-ul-Kayyim, the messenger of Allah continued dealing with the people of Khaybar through this system of sharecropping till his death and he never invalidated it. The rightly guided caliphs also continued with the practice as well. Al-Muwafaq ibn Qudamah also affirmed this by saying “The rightly guided caliphs applied this system of sharecropping during their caliphate. The system was widespread in Medina and non-prohibited it. Thus, there was a consensus amongst the Muslim scholars over their validity”.
The need and importance for agriculture muzara’ah (Islamic sharecropping) are inextricably linked to employment, food sufficiency, and economic growth. There are many people who own farmlands yet do not have the time to work on them, and others who can work in agriculture yet lack the farmlands to work on. Thus, Islamic wisdom ascertains the permissibility of sharecropping for the benefit of the two parties; the landlord and the sharecropper. In this way, cooperation for accomplishing benefits and avoiding damages will be achieved.
This is contrary to farmland tenancy agreements where one may gain at the expense of the other. In other words, the farmland tenancy agreement has an enormous element of uncertainty embedded. But in muzara’ah, the two share the profit as well as the loss, as is closer to maintaining justice. Farmland renting amounts to devouring other people’s wealth unjustly.
Oldest civilizations in history such as the Ancient Egyptian civilization, Indus Valley, the Babylonia, Incas and Aztecs, etc. had agriculture as their backbone. For example, the pharaonic Egyptian civilization, 4400 BC, heavily relied on the Nile River and cultivated crops such as wheat, barley, olive trees and vegetables. Hence, the phrase: “Egypt is the Nile and the Nile is Egypt”. “This created food sufficiency and paved the way for the ancient Egyptians to concentrate on developing technologies such as engineering (construction of pyramids), shipbuilding and complex architecture. In a nutshell, no nation would be able to develop its culture to its advanced level without taking agriculture seriously. Agriculture is sine qua non. Under Islamic sharecropping, agricultural talents will flourish and this, in turn, would cause a bumper harvest because the system is flexible and has win-win results embedded. And Allah knows best!
YAHAYA ILIASU MUSTAPHA
The writer is an Islamic Banking and Finance patron and advocate in Ghana.
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