I am a resident of Chennai,India.I would like to take up a residence on lease by paying a lumpsum for a period of three years and no rent is payable during this period.After the expiry of the leased period the premises will be handed over to the owner and the same lumpsum will be returned to me.The agreement can also be extended by mutual consent.Maintenence charges have to be paid for the apartment monthly.This system is widely practised here. Some islamic scholars feel that this is not permitted in islam and a certain amount is to be compulsurily paid as rent.If this condition is to be fulfilled can I pay a small nominal amount as rent. Please give the islamic ruling in this matter in the light of sunnah and Quran.


Praise be to Allaah.
 

Firstly: 

It is not permissible to do the deal in this manner. This is
a form of loaning with interest, which is haraam. 

The reason for that is that a loan means giving money or
property to someone to benefit from it and then give it back. 

The money that is given to the landlord will be returned
after the agreed lease period ends, so this money is a loan, and the lender
benefits from this loan by making use of the house until his money is
returned to him. So this deal is in fact a loan which brings a benefit, and
the scholars are agreed that every loan which brings a benefit to the lender
is haraam, because it is a type of riba. 

Ibn Qudaamah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in
al-Mughni (6/436): 

Every loan in which it
is stipulated that something extra be given (when paying back) is haraam,
with no dispute. Ibn al-Mundhir said: They are unanimously agreed that if
the lender stipulates that the borrower should give something extra or give
him a gift, and he gives the loan on that basis, then taking the extra
amount is riba. It was narrated from Ubayy ibn Ka’b, Ibn ‘Abbaas and Ibn
Mas’ood that they forbade loans that bring benefits. End quote. 

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allaah have mercy on him) said in
al-Sharh al-Mumti’, 4/64: 

An example of benefits
as a condition of a loan is when a man comes to another man and says: “I
want you to lend me one hundred thousand,” and he says, “But I will live in
your house for a month.” Here the loan brings a benefit to the lender so it
is haraam and is not permissible. 

The basic principle concerning loans is that they are an act
of kindness towards the borrower, but if conditions are introduced it
becomes a kind of business deal, and if it is a kind of business deal then
it involves riba al-fadl and riba al-nasee’ah. So for example if someone
borrows one hundred thousand from me and I stipulate that I will live in his
house for a month, then it is as if I sold him one hundred thousand in
return for something extra, which is my living in the house for a month.
This is riba nasee’ah because it is a delay in handing over what has been
borrowed, and it is riba al-fadl because it involves giving something
extra. 

Hence the scholars said that every loan that brings a benefit
is riba. End quote. 

It says in al-Mawsoo’ah al-Fiqhiyyah (3/266): 

The conditions of a loan
being valid: 

The first condition: the lender should not benefit. If the
lender benefits form giving the loan either by stipulating conditions in the
contract or otherwise, then if it is by stipulating conditions then it is
haraam without any scholarly dispute on that point… end quote. 

Secondly: 

Attention should be paid to what a contract really involves
in spite of what it is called. In fact this contract – as stated above – is
a loan that brings benefits, and this is a kind of riba. The fact that
people call it renting does not alter the fact at all, and does not change
the ruling thereon. The Prophet SAWS (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon
him) told us that some people among his ummah would drink khamr (alcohol)
and call it by another name. 

So beware of making halaal things that are haraam. Paying a
small amount as rent does not make this haraam action permissible, because
the larger amount that is paid is still a loan that brings a benefit. 

The owner of the money has not paid the larger amount of
money (the loan) which will come back to him for any purpose other than to
make use of the house, and the owner of the house has not given the house to
the other person to use except in return for the loan. 

Nothing is hidden from Allaah, and He has punished the one
who makes haraam things halaal by means of trickery with a swift punishment,
as happened in the story of the Sabbath-breakers (see al-Nisa’ 4:47 and
al-A’raaf 7:163). 

And Allaah knows best.