at a specified rent, paid the rent to the managing agent, took possession of the premises from them and occupied them for a time, and they then demanded the rent already paid, may the trustee make this lease binding on the tenant but not binding on himself and his deputies? May he invoke it to prevent the tenant from leaving when he wishes to leave and demand the rent specified in it, while accepting any higher offer from someone who outbids him? If this is impermissible and the trustee persists in it, does that compromise his integrity and his standing as trustee? Must he lease the endowment property or the orphan’s property under a valid lease, or not?

He replied:

He may not hand over endowment property, an orphan’s property, or any other property that he administers by virtue of his trusteeship except under a lease valid under Islamic law. He may not hand it over to the tenant under an invalid lease. Likewise, an agent acting for his principal may not hand over property he has been commissioned to lease except under a lease valid under Islamic law.

The trustee may not make the lease binding on the tenant but revocable by the lessor, for this contradicts the consensus of the Muslims. Rather, if he holds that leases, sales and similar transactions are valid when concluded through customary means—as the majority hold—he may hand over the property through an arrangement customarily recognized as a lease. If, however, he holds that sales, leases and similar transactions are valid only through a verbal formula, he must not hand over the property unless he has concluded the lease verbally. Likewise, he must not hand over anything he has sold from an orphan’s property or other property unless he has concluded a sale valid under Islamic law. Thus, whoever considers a sale concluded by mutual exchange without a verbal formula permissible may hand over the property on the basis of such a sale. This is the view