Fixing the rent of land in unhusked rice

Question

Question: Zayd gives Umar one bigha (a local unit of land area) on the condition: “You must give 50 maunds (a unit of weight, ≈ 37 kg) of paddy (unhusked rice), whether it grows or not,” and Umar too agrees to this. What is the Shar‘i ruling?

Answer

This is not muzara‘a (sharecropping) but renting out land, and the 50 maunds of paddy are the rent, whether he cultivates paddy or something else or cultivates nothing at all. This transaction is valid in the Shari‘a, just as it is valid to fix 50 rupees as the rent.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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