Sale on Condition of Rescission (Iqala)

Question

Zayd bought about five bighas (a local unit of land area) of land adjoining the settlement on this condition: “As long as you live here, build whatever you like on the land, and when you wish to leave, take back your price and return our land to us.” Zayd built a dwelling house on this land and a raised platform for prayer, on which he regularly prays in congregation. Now he wishes to leave.

Answer

Buying and selling on this condition is impermissible; by it the sale became defective (fasid), and its annulment (faskh) is wajib. He should take back the price and hand the land over to the seller; then the seller may do whatever he wishes on his own land. The platform built for prayer after obtaining the land through a fasid sale is not a mosque in the Sharʿi sense.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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