Fertilizer (simad) and its rulings

Simad is what the land is manured with: earth, animal dung or the like cast at the roots of crops and vegetables so that the plant thrives. The technical sense does not depart from the lexical one. ¹

Droppings of animals whose flesh is not eaten, other than birds, are impure by the jurists' agreement. The droppings of birds of prey are impure for the majority and pure for Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf. ¹ The Malikis, Hanbalis and Zufar hold the droppings of eaten animals pure, while the preferred Shafi'i view holds the droppings of all animals impure. ^{1 2}

The Malikis and Shafi'is hold that a crop watered with an impure substance, or grown from impure seed, must have its outer surface washed before it is eaten; the Shafi'is exempt the droppings of dogs and pigs, which may not be used at all. The Hanafis neither forbid nor dislike such crops. The apparent Hanbali position forbids them, while Ibn Aqil held it disliked rather than forbidden. ^{2 3}

The Hanafis permit selling it, but dislike selling pure human excrement on its own, not when it is mixed with earth or ash. The Malikis and Hanbalis permit selling dung and pure fertilizers. The Hanbalis forbid selling impure ones, and the Shafi'is forbid selling fertilizer altogether. ^{2 3}

Most jurists hold that any condition not part of the farm work, if the owner stipulates it, invalidates the share-cropping contract, and buying manure on the owner's account is such a condition. Some hold that making the worker buy the manure is also invalid. The Hanafis add that any condition by which the landowner benefits after the term, such as spreading dung on the land, invalidates it. ³

For the detailed positions on impurity, see the entries on animal droppings and impurity. ²