Sunday, 5 April 2026 (17 Shawwal 1447 AH)
Question: If a man gives another a car to work on, with one-third of what is earned for the worker, one-third for the car, and one-third for the car’s owner—what is the ruling on this transaction?
Answer: This is a transaction commonly practiced in our land, yet it is invalid according to the school; it is neither a valid lease nor a valid muḍārabah. For a condition of a valid leasing of an asset is mentioning the term (duration), and a condition of a valid muḍārabah is that the capital be cash.
I say: Since this transaction has become widespread with cars, mills, and other machines, there is a case for deeming it valid on the following bases:
1- The frequent practice of Muslims with this transaction; the established rule is to construe their transactions as valid whenever possible. And in the report: “What the Muslims deem good is good with Allah.”
2- This transaction is analogized to mukhābarah (sharecropping). A great many of the scholars of the Ummah held it valid, adducing as proof the Prophet’s (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) practice with the Jews of Khaybar, where he left the land to them to maintain and allotted to them one-half of what it produced; and the Prophet said to them (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace): “We will keep you so long as we wish.” This suffices as evidence, and this form of dealing is near-mutawātir (mass-transmitted).
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2