The Ruling on a Lease Contract with an Unspecified Duration
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on a lease contract with this wording: "This house is yours for such-and-such amount as long as I remain in this neighborhood"?
Answer:
This is not valid because the duration is not specified. "As long as I remain in this neighborhood" is not defined; it is unknown. It is a condition in a lease that the duration be known so that no dispute arises between the two parties. If the duration is unknown, the lease is not valid. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, what is the ruling on a lease contract with this wording: "This house is yours for such-and-such amount as long as I remain in this neighborhood"?
Answer:
This is not valid because the duration is not specified. "As long as I remain in this neighborhood" is not defined; it is unknown. It is a condition in a lease that the duration be known so that no dispute arises between the two parties. If the duration is unknown, the lease is not valid. Yes.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع كتاب الجنايات - 2 — islamhouse.com (57:43)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.