I took a piece of land from its owner and paid him a pledge of five thousand riyals for a period of three years, and I planted that land but did not give its owner anything from the harvest.

The questioner : The last question says: I took an agricultural piece of land from a person and paid him a pledge in it of five thousand riyals for a period of three years. I planted it for that duration and harvested its fruits for myself, and I did not give him anything from them. Nevertheless, the harvest only equaled half the value of the pledge. After the end of the term, he took back his land and returned to me the full value of the pledge. What is the Islamic ruling on this transaction?

The Shaykh : The question is not as it should be understood.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : However, it appears to me that he agreed with the land owner to give him a share of the harvest, and that the land owner secured himself by taking this pledge. And when the term agreed upon between them ended, he did not give him anything from the land's harvest, and he took back the money he had pledged with the land owner, and then he left. If the matter is as I understood it from this question, then it is obligatory for you now to go to the land owner and give him his share of the produce that you took from this land, and to repent to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) from this transaction, and to be frank in your dealings, not concealing a transaction from your Muslim brother with whom such transactions have taken place.