A question related to the previous issue of the vacancy fee.

The questioner : We say that the vacancy fee reduces the value of the monthly rent. Instead of the tenant paying two thousand or three thousand riyals per month, he pays an upfront vacancy fee and the tenant pays five hundred dinars. Is it, from a financial perspective, the same thing?

The Shaykh : It is not the same thing.

The questioner : Oh?

The Shaykh : It is not the same thing. If it were the same thing, it would be a mere turn of phrase, but it is not the same thing. The evidence is that if it were the same thing, let us do an approximate calculation. If the vacancy fee is added to the rent, and the rent is, for example, five hundred, what would the rent become? One thousand, is that not so? For example.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : All right, why doesn’t he rent it in advance and say: This is the rent for the property, such and such. If it is like part of it, why doesn’t he do it that way?

The questioner : ... He takes the capital at the beginning and invests it elsewhere.

The Shaykh : There is also an answer to this.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : He takes the capital and receives from it the rent for five years.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Upfront in advance, and this is pure and lawful. But no, they do not do this because their goal is to firmly hold people. And you perhaps know more than I do. When I rent this property from you and pay a vacancy fee of five thousand, it is possible that one day I am forced to vacate this place. Either I vacate against my will and travel or move to another place, and you benefit from the vacancy fee a second time, or he says to you: My brother, I paid you the vacancy fee, so I must take the vacancy now. Then the vacancy fee you paid him, which was five thousand, will become ten thousand, and this will become a cause of dispute between the landlord and the tenant. But if the matter were clear and explicit: My brother, the rent for the property is such and such per year, then you either make it a station for a rental period of five years or one year. When the five years end, we may continue with this rate of rent or increase or decrease it according to what we agree upon. If people did this, they would be saved from many, many problems and disputes. Therefore, do not imagine that the issue is like one another; whether he takes a vacancy fee and reduces the rent, or takes a higher rent but does not take a vacancy fee; they are not the same.
The Shaykh: We have in the Levant the problem is present, perhaps like you or more than you. So after thinking about the issue, some people said to me: We take a vacancy fee as a precaution, because this man may do in this property whatever Allah wills, then he wants to hand over the property to another man, and the law helps him, and I at that time become outside, so I control him before he controls me, so I impose this vacancy fee on him. And then if he is able to overcome me by the existing system—which is of course not Islamic—I will have secured for myself some profit in advance.
The Shaykh: In summary: The issue is clearer than it needs to be discussed, because when you call it a "vacancy fee" and it is not a vacancy fee, what is the value of something that is nothing? What is the value of something that is nothing? The vacancy fee is the rent that enables the tenant to benefit from it. So either we say: The rent does not enable its payer to benefit from the vacancy of the property, and this is false speech, or we say—and this is the truth: The vacancy fee is not the price of benefiting from this vacancy, because we obtained it through the lease; so it is certainly, except in the first case, from the category of: .