Is it permissible, Islamically, for a landowner to give his land to another person to cultivate it by rain-fed (deim) farming, such that the landowner receives a known share of the yield (like one-fifth, for example), without bearing any expenses, knowing that the cultivator is the only one who will be harmed if the year is not rainy or the crops do not grow?

Sharecropping (partnership in cultivation) is permissible according to the majority of scholars, due to what was reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) that he dealt with the people of Khaybar on the basis of half of what came out of it. The Rightly Guided Caliphs and many Companions and Tabi'un acted upon this, and it is what Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah explicitly stated as permissible, even if the seeds are provided by the worker. Therefore, there is no harm in the aforementioned transaction if the share of each party from the crop is specified. The ruling is not affected by the worker incurring losses if the year is not rainy or the crop does not grow, nor by the fact that the expenses related to seeds and labor are borne by the worker.