the lease, with his liability for rent ceasing from the time of rescission, and remaining liable under it, paying the rent, and demanding compensation from this wrongdoer for the use of the property.

He was asked:

About a house endowed for the benefit of a minor and an adult man. The founder’s father leased it forty years ago under coercion and compulsion from an influential man. Is the father’s lease valid with respect to his adult son? The son saw that his father was being coerced and held under guard. Wishing to free him from the wrongdoer who had forced him to grant the lease, the son formally declared before witnesses that he ratified it. Is this witnessed declaration valid? And is a forty-year lease valid?

He replied:

If someone is wrongfully coerced into granting a lease or wrongfully coerced into ratifying it, it is not valid. By the consensus of the Muslims, someone subjected to wrongful coercion is not bound by his sale, lease, or ratification. As for leasing an endowment for this length of time, scholars disagree, as is the case within the schools of Abū Hanīfah and al-Shāfiʿī.