Khulta (joint and neighbourly mixing of property)

الخُلطة

Khulta is lexically mixing, and the partner is the mixer; in fiqh there are two kinds: mixing of things, called joint or common mixing, where property belongs to two or more in common and remains undivided, and mixing of attributes, called neighbourly mixing, where each owner's property is known and they use the same facilities without separation. ¹ The ruling: mixing is lawful in itself and may ease the owners, as when the herds of a village go to one shepherd, or joint farming shares water and labour. The Prophet forbade showing a mixture to reduce zakat, or showing separation for that end, in the report that one does not join what is separate nor separate what is joined for fear of zakat. ¹² On the effect of mixing on zakat: the majority hold it has an effect, citing the report of Anas that two mixing partners settle between them equally; the schools differ on some conditions and on which property is affected. ² On the effect of mixing on zakat: al-Azhari and al-Shafii read the report "do not join the separate nor separate the joined for fear of zakat" as a ban on mixing to escape duty; the Hanafis hold that mixing has no effect, since joining or separating concerns ownership, not places. ³⁴ Ways mixing affects zakat: the completion of the minimum (Shafiis and Hanbalis), the number (more or less), the age, and the kind; the Shafiis and Hanbalis allow one partner to pay for the other with or without consent, on dispute. ⁴⁵ Property affected outside the Hanafi school: livestock by agreement; for crops, fruit, trade goods and money the preferred Shafii view says mixing counts, while Malik, one report of Ahmad and most scholars say it counts only for livestock; al-Awza'i and Ishaq allow neighbourly mixing for crops. ⁵⁶ Conditions: each partner must hold a full minimum (Malikis), or the joint property must reach it (Shafiis), while the Hanbalis do not require each to hold it; both must be Muslim free owners liable to zakat; intention is a condition for the Malikis and not for the Shafiis and Hanbalis; sharing of facilities: in livestock the watering place, the pen, the night shelter, the milking, the pasture, the herd and the stallion, with each school counting the required number; for crops the guard, the threshing floor, the water and the labour. ⁶⁷⁷⁸ Duration: the Shafiis in the new view and the Hanbalis require the mixing through the whole year; the Malikis require it at the end of the year; for crops, until the fruit ripens or the grain hardens. ⁹ Collection: partners are treated as one owner, so the collector may take the due from either property, and from the young or the old as the case requires. ⁹¹⁰ Refunds between partners: in joint ownership there is no problem; in neighbourly mixing partners settle by number and by value of what was taken; Ibn al-Qasim takes the value on the day of taking, Ashhab on the day of settlement; if the collector wrongly took by a plausible interpretation, it is treated as rightful; if not, there is no refund. ¹⁰ If the collector took without right and without a plausible interpretation, the one charged cannot recover from his partner, since the taking is a wrong the victim cannot pass on; if he took an older animal than due, the one charged recovers from his partner the value of his share of the difference, since the excess is wrong. ¹¹