Leasing land and an orchard

Question

Question: If the owner of a mango orchard gives the land and the trees to someone for two to four years so that he may benefit from the land and the trees — obtain the fruit and so on — and the owner of the orchard takes two to four thousand rupees in return, is this proper or not?

Answer

In a lease (ijara), the purpose is to derive benefit from the leased thing, not to consume the substances themselves (istihlak al-a‘yan). Cultivating land and obtaining grain from it falls within a lease, but obtaining fruit from the landowner’s trees does not fall within a lease; rather, it would be a sale.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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