Contracting Taxpayers’ Land and the Tax on their Person; Contracting Land from Al- Sultan and then Contracting it to Others

4. A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from Sama‘ah who has said the following: “I once asked him (the Imam) عليه السلام, about the case of a man who formed a contract for a land without compulsion on the owners, with the condition with them that if he did certain repairs or built a building, that he would have the rent of such homes except what was in the hands of the farmers from before. He (the Imam) said, ‘If he has entered into contract for a known matter, he must not bother with farmers unless he has set a condition with the owner to include what is in the hands of the farmers also.’”