of the year may be worth only one-quarter of the rent, so we give him three hundred.

If he leases a car and it burns up, the lease is terminated, and the lessee is liable for the portion of the rent corresponding to the period for which he leased it.

His statement, “and by the death of the nursing child”: if a person hires a woman to nurse his child for one year, and the child dies, the lease is terminated, because the subject matter of the contract—the nursing child—has perished, making it impossible to obtain the benefit after its loss.

His statement, “and by the death of the rider, if he leaves no substitute”: an example is where someone books a place on public transport from Mecca to Medina, but dies along the way. Is the lease then terminated? The author says that there is some detail to the matter: if he leaves a substitute—and the substitute is the heir or the person designated in a will—the lease is not terminated; but if he leaves no substitute, it is terminated. This is because, if he leaves a substitute, that person takes his place; whereas if he leaves no substitute, the contracting party is unable to receive the benefit.

His statement, “and by the falling out of a tooth,” means that the lease is likewise terminated if a tooth falls out. Thus, if someone hires a dentist to extract a particular tooth, and it falls out before the dentist arrives, the lease is terminated because the benefit can no longer be obtained: the subject matter of the contract—the tooth for whose extraction he was hired—has fallen out. If the dentist insists, saying, “I must extract the second tooth,” he is not to be permitted to do so, because he was hired to extract a specified tooth, and that specified tooth has fallen out; thus, he is entitled to nothing.