Buying land without complying to seller's terms and conditions
Fatwa No: 344317

Question

Assalaamu alaykum, dear Scholars. I would like an answer regarding the following situation. My organization offers a land scheme to its employees, and to others at a different price. For employees, the land is very cheap as compared to the offer for others. I do not have the money to apply for this scheme. My brother-in-law is not an employee of my organization. He does not want to apply for land in his category. Rather, he has asked me to apply on his behalf so that he can purchase land at the cheaper price. In such case, the terms and conditions will be settled between me and my organization, and I will be purchasing the land although it is actually my brother-in-law who will be its owner. Can he benefit from this is this way? May Allaah reward you.

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, is His slave and Messenger.

It is impermissible to deceive your organization and register your name in order to obtain this land which is allocated for employees at a cheap price while intending to give it to another person, unless your organization approves of that and authorizes you to register even if you do not want it for yourself. The Muslim is enjoined to abide by the terms and conditions of the entity offering such services. Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, "The Muslims are bound by their conditions..." [Al-Bukhari: Mu‘allaq (a hadeeth whose whole chain of narrators is omitted), and Abu Daawood] Ibn Al-Mulaqqin declared its chain of narration hasan (good) in his book Khulaasat Al-Badr Al-Muneer.

Hence, you have to ask your organization whether you are entitled to register your name to obtain this land that is originally allocated for the employees while you intend giving it to another person. If you get their permission, there is no harm in that; otherwise, you may not deceive them.

Allah knows best.

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