What is the jurisprudential ruling on two people agreeing to rent a plot of land for cultivation, whereby one of them provides the capital and the other provides the effort and expertise, and the first takes two-thirds of the crop and the second takes one-third, with the cultivation being guaranteed to a third party in exchange for half of the produce, and the remaining half being divided between the two partners (two-thirds for the first and one-third for the second)?

An agreement between two individuals regarding sharecropping (Muzara'ah) is permissible according to the majority of scholars. However, the intention behind "guaranteeing the crop to a third person" is not clear.

If the intention is that the third person guarantees what has been expended on the land in return for half of the harvest if it is sound, then this transaction is forbidden because it is based on gambling (Maysir (definition)) and is, in essence, the forbidden form of insurance.

However, if the intention is that the third person directly undertakes the farming, and one of the two individuals pays the financial costs while the other provides the expertise, then there is no harm in that, as it falls under the permissible form of sharecropping.