Wants to buy a leased truck owned by a bank
2-3-2008 | IslamWeb
Question:
salamo 3alaykoom, my Q. is about "riba". i want to buy a transport truck for my business from a user of the truck since it still belong to Bank. the User bought it as leasing with a total 20000 f.example. is the following methods HALAL or not ?: - making a contract with the bank with same price 20000 which will be paid by month without extra charges (the Bank can do it since it has already add the charges for the first user).(and with user permission who wants to sell it for me ) - if this is not ok, do you have any suggetion to make halal, since in my situation the user is privat who accept my condition but he is not 100% the owner..?
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
In general, rent contracts which end with ownership are invalid even though some of them may be valid. They are valid when there are two different and distinct contracts with a time interval between them, in a way that the sale contract is concluded after the rent contract. Or when there is a promise of ownership at the end of the rent period. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 81863.
Since the person renting the car does not own it until now –as we understand from the question –then it is not Islamically permissible for him to sell it to you because he does not own it; among the conditions of sale is that the seller must own what he sells.
Therefore, it is permissible for you to buy this car from the bank which owns it provided you buy it with a correct sale contract because the bank renting the car does not prevent from selling it, as stated by Al-Buhooti 
from the Hanbali School of jurisprudence. This is the view of the majority of the scholars 
.
However, some other scholars are of the view that selling the rented property is valid, but it is dependent on the acceptance of the renter as he has right in it (by renting it) provided he is not harmed. Therefore, if the renter agrees to the sale contract, it becomes valid, and the rent agreement becomes void, but if he does not agree then the sale is void; this is the view of the Hanafi School of jurisprudence.