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What is the ruling on the timeshare system, where a company allows the rental of residential units in a tourist resort for one week annually, with the possibility of gifting, renting, or selling this week, and is it permissible to pay 200 dollars for maintenance, cleaning, and other services?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is Islamically permissible for a contract to stipulate the ownership of the usufruct of a specific asset for a defined period, and then to gift, lease, or sell it to others. As for the possibility of exchanging the apartment's location for another apartment in a different resort, this depends on the legal classification of the ownership of the apartment's usufruct. If the ownership is through leasing, then scholars have differed on exchanging the apartment's usufruct for another usufruct: the Malikis and Hanafis prohibited it, considering it the sale of a debt for a debt, which is forbidden. However, the Hanbalis permitted it. But if the ownership of the usufruct is outright ownership of a specific share (a common share), then it is permissible to exchange this period for another in a different apartment.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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