Leasing land for a house without a fixed term, and the tenant’s imamate

Question

Question: Bakr’s forebears, for their own residence, obtained from the landowners themselves a piece of bare (unbuilt) land for the purpose of building a dwelling house — without fixing any term, for a small sum, the tenant’s due (annual ground rent), of 4 or 8 annas (a coin worth 1/16 of a rupee) a year — and built a mud house on it. It has become known that the one who obtained this land was the grandfather or great-grandfather of the said Bakr. To this day Bakr and his forebears have lived there.

Answer

This is an invalid (fasid) lease, because no term was fixed in it, and stating the term is a condition for the validity of a lease: [ar]ومنها بيان المدة في الدور والمنازل والحوانيت[/ar] “And among them is stating the term in the case of houses, dwellings and shops” (‘Alamgiri, vol. 3, p. 1089).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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