What is the ruling on an animal loan which stipulates giving a certain number of cows for several years, provided that the females born to these cows belong to the lender, and the males and milk belong to the borrower, then the mother cows become the property of the borrower after the contract ends?

The answer to the question can be summarized in the following points:

Firstly: Participation in livestock breeding in exchange for a share of its offspring is a matter of dispute among jurists. Some, like Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, permitted it, citing the permissibility of the original asset and drawing an analogy with musaqat (sharecropping of trees) and muzara'ah (sharecropping of land). The majority prohibited it, considering it an ijarah (lease/hire) with an unknown wage, or because the offspring is not a product of the worker's labor. The more preponderant opinion is permissibility.

Secondly: The agreement that females belong to the owner and males to the breeder is, by unanimous consensus, a gharar (excessive uncertainty) that invalidates the partnership, due to the risk of imbalance and harm to one of the parties. Such an arrangement has been prohibited in muzara'ah. However, if they agree to share in the offspring of every birth, it is permissible.

Thirdly: If they agree that the mother cows will eventually belong to the breeder, there is no objection to that. This is a promise of a gift or a gift contingent upon the termination of the partnership, and suspending a gift (making it conditional) is permissible according to the preponderant opinion.

Fourthly: This contract cannot be called a loan, because if it were a loan with a stipulated benefit (offspring from females), it would be prohibited riba (usury).