Machine summary:
t In guaranteeing the free use of the endowments of nature to all the members of society, Islam sanctions the method of ownership, which, in effect, means that every member shall have a title to the land which he puts to use either as site for dwelling or plot of agriculture in the same way as one would have a title to the bucket of water that one draws from the river or the bundle of sticks that one gathers from the forest.
Thus, though the importance of a start from the principle of free use for all should not be overlooked, it is certain that in course of time as people take their shares of the endowments of nature and exploit them with human labour, there would be buying and selling of land, and if the savings, which are bound soon to arise and accumulate, are allowed to be invested in purchases of more land and the process left to continue unchecked, it will soon result in a situation fraught with grave possibilities of ruthless exploitation of labour hard pressed by inequalities of wealth.
Such a situation did prevail in Arabia at the time of the Prophet's mission and we shall presently see what Islam did to initiate the principle (unknown before) of free use of land for all.
(iii) A third practice was to let out the land on payment of a stipu• lated proportion of the actual produce; vide the following traditions:- (View the image of this page) " '5..