Renting farmland for money

A question about renting farmland for money, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that bare land without trees may be rented for a known sum of money, while land with fruit trees may not be rented, though a sharecropping contract for orchards (musaqat) may be made on its conditions. ¹

The questioner asked about renting land for farming at a known sum per dunum paid in advance, with the produce going to the farmer alone and any loss borne by him alone. ¹

The Department answered that bare land without trees may be rented for a known sum of money, citing a hadith narrated by Muslim in which Hanzala ibn Qays asked Rafi ibn Khadij about renting land; Rafi mentioned that it had been prohibited, then said there was no harm in renting it for gold and silver. It quoted al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim (10/198) that al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifa and many others permitted renting land for gold and silver. ¹ It said that land with fruit trees whose fruit has not ripened may not be rented, since that amounts to selling fruit before it is clearly ripe, which is prohibited, but the worker and the landowner may agree a sharecropping contract for the trees (musaqat) on its Shari'a conditions. ¹ It noted that the Jordanian Iftaa Council distinguished in its resolution 80 between bare land, which may be rented for gold, silver or money, and land with trees, which may not be rented for money for a year, more or less, whether before or after the fruit ripens, nor for a fixed, unshared portion of its produce. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3747, dated 23 February 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.