Section
The usurper’s legally consequential transactions are invalid …
His statement, “The usurper’s legally consequential transactions are invalid”: “transactions” is the subject, “legally consequential” is an adjective qualifying “transactions,” and “invalid” is the predicate.
His statement, “the usurper’s transactions,” means his transactions involving the usurped property.
His statement, “legally consequential,” means those to which a ruling of validity or invalidity applies. As for the prescriptive ruling, all of the usurper’s transactions are unlawful. But with respect to the declaratory ruling—that is, the ruling of validity or invalidity—any transaction that may be ruled valid or invalid is invalid when undertaken by the usurper. That is, its existence is tantamount to nonexistence. For example, if he usurps a garment and sells it, usurpation is unlawful and the sale is unlawful; but is the sale valid or invalid?
We consider whether sales may be valid or invalid. The answer is yes: some are valid and some are invalid. Accordingly, this sale is invalid, and ownership does not pass to the purchaser through it, because one of the conditions of a sale is that it be made by the owner or someone acting in his stead, and the usurper does not stand in the owner’s place.
Leases may likewise be valid or invalid; endowments may be valid or invalid; and pledges may be valid or invalid. Thus, regarding all legally consequential transactions—that is, transactions to which a ruling of validity or invalidity applies—the author says, “invalid.” The usurper’s sale of usurped property is therefore invalid, and his leasing of it is invalid. This becomes apparent if he usurps a house and leases it to someone for ten thousand riyals, then Allah blesses him with repentance and he returns the house to its owner. Is this lease valid or invalid? The answer is that it is invalid. If we were to say that it was valid, the owner of the house would be entitled to the rent stipulated in the contract, namely ten thousand riyals. But if we say that it is invalid—