Drastic increase in rents is against Islam, say scholars
Ironically, here is the solution........ Inshallah! Next century...
I'm sorry to hear the news. It seems to be everywhere. Salaries stall and cost of living rockets to new heights.
Chk this out:
By Bassam Za'za', GULF NEWS Staff Reporter
Dubai: It is the Arab governments' responsibility to prohibit greedy landlords from setting irrational and unaffordable rises in rents, said a group of Muslim scholars.
Speaking about the unreasonable rise in rents in the Arab world, a cross-section of the scholars, participating in the 16th session of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council that concluded in Dubai yesterday, told Gulf News about the religion's viewpoint regarding the rise in rents.
"In Islam, a government should help secure housing for people. Thus when there is enough housing, there will be a marginal increase in rents.
"However, when the population increases and the demand for housing increases, landlords will illogically start increasing rents. This burdens residents," said Dr Ekrima Saeed Sabri, Orator of Al Aqsa Mosque, Grand Mufti of Occupied Jerus-alem and the Holy Land and Chief of the Scholars and Preachers Organisation.
"Such greedy and unaffordable rent increases are considered to be exploitation of the tenants. That's where the government should intervene and set a reasonable and affordable price that brings the landlord a moderate profit and doesn't burden the tenant," he said.
Dr Sabri said Islamic Sharia called for people to be treated equally.
"Knowing many residents are complaining against the imbalanced rise in rents, we hope the Arab countries will look into this matter seriously and set convenient rents. The authorities should treat the matter justly and equally," he said.
"God has ordered us to cooperate with each other. Therefore, people should collaborate in all matters, especially business contracts, including rents," said Shaikh Sharif Abdullah Sharif, a Dubai-based Islamic scholar.
"A landlord should be understanding and take into account the tenant's circumstances. It has become hard to believe how the rents are increasing.
"This is considered a lack of coordination between the tenant and landlord and doesn't correspond to God's orders," he said.
"Many landlords have reasoned the increase in rents to the rise in prices of construction materials. To those landlords I say, what about the old buildings why are the owners of old buildings increasing the rent?"
The scholar said landlords should not be greedy or materialistic but should be God-fearing.
He also called for a salary increase for private sector employees so they could afford the rise in daily living expenses, including rents.
Shaikh Wahba Al Zuhaili, chairman of the Islamic Jurisprudence Section, College of Sharia at Damascus University, said: "Any type of lease contract is subject to the consent of the landlord and the tenant.
"The tenant has the right to occupy the place till the contract ends. According to the Sharia, the landlord is prohibited from raising the rent as long as the tenancy contract hasn't expired. God has ordered us to observe our own covenants."
"After a lease expires, the new one becomes subject to an amicable increase between the two parties. Thereafter, the tenant can either agree to renew the contract or vacate the place.
"The new rise should be affordable and not burdening to the tenant and reasonably profitable to the landlord," he said.
"Governments should not intervene randomly and set rent prices. If a landlord becomes greedy and irrationally raises the rent, it is only then the government should break in and control the prices," Dr Abdul Wahab Lutfallah Al Daylani, an Islamic Jurisprudence Cou-ncil expert from Yemen, told Gulf News.