If someone leases a house or the like for a fixed term—even a long one—and it is reasonably assumed that the property will remain intact throughout that period, the lease is valid.

If the property is taken on hire for a specific task—such as an animal to ride to a designated place, cattle for ploughing or threshing grain, or a guide to show the way—the task must be precisely identified and defined so that no uncertainty remains.

A lease is invalid when it concerns a service whose performer must be among those who seek nearness to Allah through the act itself.1

The lessor must provide everything required to obtain the benefit: the camel’s bridle, saddle, girth, fastening of the saddle, securing the loads and litters, lifting and lowering them, making the camel kneel, the house keys, and normal maintenance. Emptying a drain or latrine, however, is the tenant’s responsibility once he has received it empty.

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A lease is a binding contract. If the lessor rents out something but withholds it for all or part of the term, he is entitled to nothing; whereas if the other party2 withdraws before the period ends, he must still pay the rent.3

The contract is dissolved if the leased property is destroyed, if the nursling or rider dies and no substitute is available, or if the tooth to be extracted comes out on its own, heals, and the like. It is not dissolved by the death of either or both contracting parties, nor by the lessee’s loss of funds or similar circumstances.

If one rents a house which then collapses, or land for cultivation whose water supply is subsequently cut off,