A Comparative Study of Mukhabarah and Muzaraah in Islamic Schools of Law

There are two differences between mukhabarah and muzaraah (sharecropping) and their legitimacy. These differences originate from two sets of hadiths; in a group of hadiths mukhabarah is prohibited while another group points to the deal of the Prophet (PBUH) with the residents of Khaybar in exchange for the half of the crops of the lands. Those who believe in legitimacy of mukhabarah justify the hadiths prohibiting it so that they can be reconciled with legiltimacy of muzaraah (sharecropping). But those jurists who reject the legitimacy of mukjabarah and muzaraah because of the similarity of mukhabarah with muzaraah, believe that prohibition hadiths abrogate legitimacy hadiths. Some others consider the Prophet deal with the residents of Khyber as receiving a land tax. Schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree on the illegitimacy of land leasing against the value of some of its products; because they have considered it as an example of gharar because of the unknown amount of the crop, unknown time of receiving it, and uncertainty about the ripening of the crops. But there is a difference between leasing and sharecropping. As in leasing the rent should be known, but in sharecropping remuneration should be shared, not based on presumed or specified portion of the product. Some of Sunni jurists who believe in legitimacy of sharecropping, have interpreted sharecropping as a contract of partnership between the operating company and the owner, hence solving the problem in some way.