For services such as riding, ploughing, threshing, or guiding someone along a road, the work must be clearly specified and defined so precisely that no dispute can arise over it.

A lease(1) is not valid(2) for any task whose performance is, by its very nature, an act of devotion—such as giving the call to prayer or handing down a judicial ruling; in such cases, a jiʿālah (reward-based agreement) is permissible instead.

The lessor must supply whatever enables the lessee to obtain the intended benefit: a halter, saddle, girth strap, the loading, tightening, and unloading of the cargo, hobbling the camel so it remains when the rider dismounts, the maintenance of a house and its key. He is not responsible for emptying a cesspit or privy; if he delivered it empty, any further emptying is the tenant’s responsibility.

Section

Ijarah is a binding contract: it is not annulled by the death of either party, nor may either of them unilaterally rescind it. Should the owner transfer the property to someone else or prevent the lessee from using it—even for part of the term—he is entitled to nothing. If the lessee fails to occupy the premises or moves elsewhere, he is still liable for the rent.

The contract is dissolved if the leased article perishes, if the infant being nursed dies, or if the tooth one hired a dentist to extract is pulled—or the ailment heals on its own. It is not dissolved by the rider’s death, the loss of his travel funds, or the burning of his belongings.

If someone rents a house and it collapses, or land whose irrigation water ceases or becomes flooded, the lease terminates for the remaining period. Should the leased property become defective, or be discovered to have been defective from the outset(3), the lessee may annul the lease but must pay rent for the time that has already elapsed.

An exclusive employee (ajīr khāṣṣ) is not liable for unintentional damage caused by his hand, whereas a non-exclusive, general labourer is liable for whatever is ruined through his own action.