Renting Property to Non-Muslims

15-9-2002 | IslamWeb

Question:

Can a Muslim rent his house to a non-Muslim?

Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

Basically, it is lawful to have financial transactions such as selling, purchasing and rental between Muslims and non-Muslims as long as such transactions do not include any prohibited matters and meet the Sharee’ah conditions. This is proved in the Sunnah of the Prophet  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) and his companions' dealings with polytheists and Jews.

One exception is that it is forbidden to rent a house to be used as a church or a place of worship for non-Muslims, or any forbidden activity such as dancing, prostitution, selling wine and so on as recorded in the books of Fiqh.

For more benefit on dealing with non-Muslims, please refer to Fataawa 395743, 333871, 341263, 384016, and 88293.

Allah knows best.

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