—even without an explicit contract, the customary fee is deemed valid.

Third: the object of the lease must itself be lawful. No lease is valid if it involves a prohibited benefit such as fornication, playing reed pipes, singing, turning one’s house into a church, or selling wine. By contrast, it is permissible to rent out a wall so that another person may rest the ends of his beams upon it.

A woman may not lease out her own services without her husband’s permission.

Section

For the leased property to be valid, the following conditions must be met:

• It must be identified, either by direct inspection or by an adequate description (other than in the case of a house and the like).

• The contract must pertain to its benefit, not to its substance. Thus, one may not lease food to be eaten, wax to be burned, or an animal solely to take its milk—except in the case of a wet-nurse1. Water drawn from a well and groundwater are included incidentally.

• The lessor must be able to deliver the property; therefore, it is invalid to lease a runaway slave or a stray animal.

• The property must contain an actual benefit; hence, a crippled beast may not be leased for carrying loads, nor barren land for cultivation.

• The benefit must belong to the lessor, or he must be authorized to dispose of it. Subleasing to someone who acts in his place is permissible, provided that it causes no greater harm.

A waqf property may be leased; if the lessor dies and the property passes to the next beneficiary, the lease does not terminate, and the successor receives his share of the rent.