the benefit the land provides through the water, air, and sunshine Allah creates in it. Whoever supposes that his own activity alone is the subject matter of the contract has plainly erred, beyond any doubt. His error arises because his activity is perceptible to the senses, involving movement, whereas the benefit of the land is apprehended by the intellect, since the land does not move. When the mind perceives the observable movement, it mistakenly imagines that this is the subject matter of the contract.

This error is refuted by all other forms of leasing. The subject matter of the contract is the benefit of whatever is hired—whether inanimate, such as land, houses, and clothing, or animate, such as people and animals—not the activity of the person hiring it. His activity is merely a means of obtaining the benefit. Sometimes the benefit is obtained simultaneously with that activity, as with riding and wearing clothes; sometimes it is obtained afterwards, as with building, planting trees, and sowing crops. The subject matter of the contract is the benefit the land provides for buildings, trees, and crops, not merely the labour of the builder, planter, or farmer, which already belongs to him. How could something already his be what he pays rent to obtain? He pays rent only for the benefit he receives from the leased property, not for his own labour, which already belongs to him. For it is impossible to purchase what is already his with his own property. Whoever understands this will be certain of what we have stated and will retain no doubt about it, Allah willing.

And if the subject matter of the contract is the benefit of the property itself, from the beginning of the term to its end,