Ijarah
Ijarah is a term of Islamic fiqh. Lexically, it means ‘to give something on rent’. In the Islamic jurisprudence, the term ‘ijarah’ is used for two different situations.
Lessons
Ijarah - Introduction
Ijarah is a term of Islamic fiqh. Lexically, it means ‘to give something on rent’. In the Islamic jurisprudence, the term ‘ijarah’ is used for two different situations. In the first place, it means ‘to employ the services of a person on wages given to him as a consideration for his hired services.’ The employer is called musta’jir while the employee is called ajir.
Read »Rules of Leasing - Ijarah
1. Leasing is a contract whereby the owner of something transfers its usufruct to another person for an agreed period, at an agreed consideration. 2. The subject of lease must have a valuable use. Therefore, things having no usufruct at all cannot be leased.
Read »Ijarah – The Parties
It should be clearly understood that when the lessee himself has been entrusted with the purchase of the asset intended to be leased, there are two separate relations between the institution and the client which come into operation one after the other.
Read »Ijarah as a Mode of Financing
Like murabahah, Ijarah was not originally a mode of financing. It is simply a transaction meant to transfer the usufruct of a property from one person to another for an agreed period against an agreed consideration. However, certain financial institutions have adopted leasing as a mode of financing instead of long term lending on the basis of interest.
Read »The Commencement of Lease
Unlike the contract of sale, the agreement of ijarah can be effected for a future date. Thus, while a forward sale is not allowed in Shariah, an ‘ijarah’ for a future date is allowed, on the condition that the rent will be payable only after the leased asset is delivered to the lessee.
Read »Head Lease
Another concept developed in the modern leasing business is that of ‘head-leasing.’ In this arrangement a lessee sub-leases the property to a number of sub-lessees. Then, he invites others to participate in his business by making them share the rentals received by his sub-lessees. For making them participate in receiving rentals, he charges a specified amount from them. This arrangement is not in accordance with the principles of Shariah.
Read »Insurance of the Assets
If the leased property is insured under the Islamic mode of takaful, it should be at the expense of the lessor and not at the expense of the lessee, as is generally provided in the agreements of the current ‘financial leases’.
Read »Leased Asset - Residual Value
Another important feature of the modern ‘financial leases’ is that after the expiry of the lease period, the corpus of the leased asset is normally transferred to the lessee. As the lessor already recovers his cost along with an additional profit thereon, which is normally equal to the amount of interest which could have been earned on a loan of that amount advanced for that period, the lessor has no further interest in the leased asset. On the other hand, the lessee wants to retain the asset after the expiry of the leased period.
Read »Securitization of Ijarah
The arrangement of ijarah has a good potential of securitization which may help create a secondary market for the financiers on the basis of ijarah. Since the lessor in ijarah owns the leased assets, he can sell the asset, in whole or in part, to a third party who may purchase it and may replace the seller in the rights and obligations of the lessor with regard to the purchased part of the asset.
Read »Variable Rentals
In the long term lease agreements it is mostly not in the benefit of the lessor to fix one amount of rent for the whole period of lease, because the market conditions change from time to time. In this case the lessor has two options: (a) He can contract lease with a condition that the rent shall be increased according to a specified proportion (e.g. 5%) after a specified period (like one year).
Read »Assignment of the Lease
The lessor can sell the leased property to a third party whereby the relation of lessor and lessee shall be established between the new owner and the lessee. However, the assigning of the lease itself (without assigning the ownership in the leased asset) for a monetary consideration is not permissible.
Read »Expenses in Ijarah
As the lessor is the owner of the asset, and he has purchased it from the supplier through his agent, he is liable to pay all the expenses incurred in the process of its purchase and its import to the country of the lessor. Consequently, he is liable to pay the freight and the customs duty etc.
Read »Liability in Case of Loss
As mentioned in the basic principles of leasing, the lessee is responsible for any loss caused to the asset by his misuse or negligence. He can also be made liable to the wear and tear which normally occurs during its use.
Read »Penalty - late payment of rent
In some agreements of financial leases, a penalty is imposed on the lessee in case he delays the payment of rent after the due date. This penalty, if meant to add to the income of the lessor, is not warranted by the Shariah. The reason is that the rent after it becomes due, is a debt payable by the lessee, and is subject to all the rules prescribed for a debt.
Read »Sub-Lease
If the leased asset is used differently by different users, the lessee cannot sub-lease the leased asset except with the express permission of the lessor. If the lessor permits the lessee for subleasing, he may sub-lease it. If the rent claimed from the sub-lessee is equal to or less than the rent payable to the owner / original lessor, all the recognized schools of Islamic jurisprudence are unanimous on the permissibility of the sub lease.
Read »Termination of Ijarah
f the lessee contravenes any term of the Ijarah agreement, the lessor has a right to terminate the lease contract unilaterally. However, if there is no contravention on the part of the lessee, the lease cannot be terminated without mutual consent. In some agreements of the ‘financial lease’ it has been noticed that the lessor has been given an unrestricted power to terminate the lease unilaterally whenever he wishes, according to his sole judgment. This is again contrary to the principles of Shariah.
Read »Ijarah (Leasing) as a Mode of Finance
Leasing is well known in the west as a mode of finance. There are many reasons why an agent will opt for leasing rather than borrowing from the bank to purchase the needed asset. For example:
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