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Renting out Property to be Used as a Market: Permissible?

24 February, 2018
Q Is it permissible to rent out properties to be used as markets, hotels or tourist facilities that offer unlawful products or services?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. 

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.


In this fatwa:

1- Companies which offer unlawful services or whose services are mostly unlawful, renting out property to them is unlawful.

2- It is lawful to rent out property to companies that offer lawful services.

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Answering your question, the General Iftaa’ Department in Jordan, states the following:

Different companies offer different services: lawful, unlawful and a mixture of both. Accordingly, the ruling on renting out property to those companies relies on the nature of the services they offer.

Companies which offer unlawful services or whose services are mostly unlawful, renting out property to them is unlawful as well. Whereas, it is lawful to rent out property to companies that offer lawful services.

As for companies which offer a mixture of lawful and unlawful services, such as restaurants and hotels, if there is a clause in the rental contract that directly stipulates offering any of the unlawful services, then that contract is unlawful because every means that leads one to commit what’s unlawful is itself unlawful.

In this regard, Allah says, “Help ye one another in righteousness and piety, but help you not one another in sin and rancour: fear Allah. for Allah is strict in punishment.” (Al-Ma`idah 5:2)

But, if no such clause was included in that contract, then it is valid since, basically, that company offers lawful services, and if any unlawful service was offered, then it’s burden will be shouldered by the one who had offered it.

Almighty Allah knows best.

Source: https://www.aliftaa.jo/Question2En.aspx?QuestionId=3360