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The question

Are transactions valid for selling a shop with the condition that the seller has the right to reclaim its ownership within one year for its price, and that the buyer rents it back to the seller himself, and is the rental price considered usury if the seller reclaims the shop?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · imported Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

Scholars have differed on the duration of the option of condition (Khiyar al-Shart). The Hanafis and Shafi'is said: The option should not exceed three days, and they based their reasoning on prophetic hadiths. Whereas the Malikis said: Every sale has an option (Khiyar) according to its nature, so it can be one day, or three, or a month, and so on. The Hanbalis and the scholars of Hadith said: There is no limit to the duration of the option, neither in its maximum nor in its minimum, based on the hadith "Muslims are bound by their conditions." All of them stipulate that the seller should not benefit from the price nor the buyer from the sold item during the option period, except for testing.

Based on this, the transaction mentioned in the question is not permissible according to the four schools of thought, because the seller will benefit from the price and the buyer from the sold item for reasons other than testing. Imam Malik, in Al-Mudawwanah, explicitly stated that it is not permissible to sell a commodity on the condition that if the seller returns the price, the commodity belongs to him, because it is "a sale and a loan" (bay' wa salaf). This sale is invalid, and any rental resulting from it is also invalid. Scholars have differed on the produce/yield (ghalla) obtained from this invalid sale: whether it belongs to the buyer or the seller? The preponderant opinion is that it belongs to the buyer.

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Ftawy
Original fatwa ID
36609
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