A camel already fitted with its litter is regarded as the better option. If someone hires a camel to carry a fixed quantity of provisions and then eats from those provisions while on the road, he may replace whatever he consumed with an equivalent amount.
The hire-price is not owed merely by concluding the contract; it falls due in one of three ways: (1) when immediate payment is stipulated, (2) when the lessor accepts advance payment even without stipulation, or (3) when the lessee actually takes the benefit for which the hire was contracted.
Whoever rents a house may be asked by the landlord for the rent each day, unless the contract itself specifies when it becomes payable. If a camel is hired for the journey to Mecca, the camel-driver may claim his wage at every stage of the route. A cloth-fuller or tailor may not demand payment until the work is finished, unless prompt payment was expressly stipulated.
If a baker is hired to bake, in the hirer’s house, one qafiz of flour for one dirham, he is not entitled to the wage until the bread has been taken out of the oven. If a cook is hired to prepare food for a wedding feast, ladling out the dishes is included in his task. If a man is hired to mould sun-dried bricks, he earns his wage once he has shaped them, according to Abu Hanifa, whereas Abu Yusuf and Muhammad say he is not entitled to it until he has also stacked them for drying.
If a tailor is told, “Sew this garment in the Persian style for one dirham, or in the Roman style for two,” the stipulation is valid, and whichever of the two styles he chooses entitles him to the stated wage. Likewise, if it is said, “If you sew it today, you will have one dirham, but if you sew it tomorrow, half a dirham,” then should he sew it today he receives one dirham; if he sews it tomorrow, he is entitled—according to Abu Hanifa—to the customary wage, provided it does not exceed half a dirham.
If an owner says, “If you occupy this shop as a perfumery, the rent will be one dirham a month, but if you use it as a smithy, two dirhams,” the lease is valid and, whichever use he adopts, he owes the named rent according to Abu Hanifa. Abu Yusuf and Muhammad, however, consider the lease invalid.
When a house is rented at one dirham per month, the contract is valid for a single month and invalid for the remaining months—unless the total number of months is expressly fixed. If the tenant remains even an hour into the second month, the lease becomes valid for that month, the rent is binding, and the landlord may not evict him until the month ends; the same applies to every month in which he is in occupation at its outset.
If he hires a house for a year at ten