I am renting a house, and the owner needs it, so he told me I have to move out. I told him I want five thousand dinars to move out. Is it my right to do that?

The questioner : Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : As for this, it is a religious innovation (bid'ah). There is no reason for the greeting when Muslims meet. Here, the greeting is the right of a Muslim upon another Muslim when he meets him, so let him greet him. Please.

The questioner : My Shaykh, I am renting a house, and the owner needed it, so he told me I have to move out. I told him I want five thousand dinars and I will move out. Is it my right?

The Shaykh : May Allah preserve you. This is the answer.

The questioner : Is it not my right?

The Shaykh : It is not your right.

The questioner : But if, for example, he gave me and said, "I will give you this and that, and move out."

The Shaykh : By Allah, no one gives you from his wealth unless you force him, or he does so with a willing heart. May Allah reward him with good. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: If he has generosity and a generous spirit, he may give from his own wealth. But it is not permissible for you to treat him as a husband treats his wife whom he leaves in a state of suspension (mu'allaqah); she is neither a wife nor divorced until she forces him to ask for the divorce so that he can take back the advance and deferred mahr. So, if the tenant does not make it difficult for the landlord and says, "I want what you want, just find me a place to live until..." and so on, then he treats him with the best manner. He does not make it difficult for him, and he does not say, as mentioned in the question, "I want you to leave a man such-and-such, whose wealth is such-and-such." When the tenant treated him with the best manner, the landlord applied what is like the saying of Allah the Exalted: So he said, "My brother, here are one hundred dinars, one thousand dinars," which means a reward from me for your good treatment of me. This is lawful. But if he conditions that he will not leave except for such-and-such, that is from the category of consuming the wealth of people unjustly.