A company purchasing land for a customer before it owns it
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the ruling on what some companies say to anyone who wants to buy land: "Go to any subdivision, choose the land, and we will buy it for you"?
Answer:
This is invalid and not permissible. If they do not own the land, it is not permissible for them to contract with a person and say to him, "Go and look at the land, and we will buy it for you if you like it." They are buying it for him, meaning they are buying it for him, not for themselves, even though they do not own it; they only own it for him. This is not permissible. This is manipulation of transactions.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:Sunan Ibn Majah 2187Hasan (Darussalam) meaning what you do not own. Yes, these people are selling what they do not own, and they are buying it not for themselves, but for the customer. This is not a lawful transaction. Yes, this is a scheme to circumvent the forbidden.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, what is the ruling on what some companies say to anyone who wants to buy land: "Go to any subdivision, choose the land, and we will buy it for you"?
Answer:
This is invalid and not permissible. If they do not own the land, it is not permissible for them to contract with a person and say to him, "Go and look at the land, and we will buy it for you if you like it." They are buying it for him, meaning they are buying it for him, not for themselves, even though they do not own it; they only own it for him. This is not permissible. This is manipulation of transactions.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Do not sell what is not with you.
لا تبع ما ليس عندك
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 040 من 123 / شرح كتاب زاد المستقنع / المناسك / صالح الفوزان / الفقه / كبار العلماء — youtube.com (1:10:03)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.