Upon the completion of an Ijara (lease) contract for a fixed period, to whom does the usufruct (benefit) belong?
General Chapter
Al-Mughni
Book of Leasing
Primary text
When a lease contract is completed for a specified duration, the lessee (Musta'jir) owns the contracted benefits from the moment they arise until the end of the term. These benefits originate under the lessee's ownership. This is the position held by Al-Shafi'i. The basis for this is that ownership signifies a right that enables a specific disposition. Since it is established that the owner of the asset previously held the right to dispose of this future benefit just as they disposed of the asset itself, once leased, the lessee gains the right to dispose of it, just as the lessor possessed it. Therefore, the benefit was owned by the asset owner and then transferred to the lessee.
Supporting text
Abu Hanifa holds that the benefit remains the property of the lessor and does not vest in the lessee upon contracting because the benefit does not yet exist and thus cannot be owned, similar to fruit or offspring. However, the counter-argument to the non-existence claim is that the benefit is certainly destined to exist because it was designated as the subject matter of the contract, and a contract can only pertain to something that is presumed to exist.