Creditor conditioning to possess the mortgage upon failure to repay the loan
31-10-2007 | IslamWeb
Question:
As salam alai kum, My question is one person needs money so he had given his property papers and entered an agreement for one year to return the said amount and during that time he will pay rent (fixed amount)for the house to the person who had given the money every month ,for one year. If he fails to clear the same in one year the property is transferd to the peson who had given the money. please advice the amount which we recive every month as rent is Halal or Harm. as others feel its a interest amount.
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 
is His slave and Messenger.
The transaction you mentioned is forbidden for two reasons:
1- The creditor conditioned the debtor to pay an extra amount over the narrowed sum; this is Riba (interest and/or usury) without doubt. Ibn Qudaamah 
said: “Any loan in which an increase is conditioned is forbidden without any difference of opinion in this regard.”
2- The creditor conditioned to possess the mortgage if the debtor is unable to repay the loan; this is an invalid condition. Al-Jassaas said regarding conditioning the possession of the mortgage for the person with whom the mortgage is kept when the period of loan ends: “The scholars 
agreed that the creditor is not permitted to own the mortgage when the period expires, but they differed about whether or not the mortgage is lawful or unlawful.”
The majority of the scholars are of the view that this condition is void and it renders the mortgage contract void. Ibn Qudaamah said: "This is narrated from Ibn 'Umar, Shurayh, An-Naf'i, Maalik, Ath-Thawri, Ash-Shaafi'i, and the Hanafi scholars, and we do not know any scholar who contradicted them."
The evidence about this is the narration which reads: “There should be no conditions in the mortgage.”; meaning a person should not give a mortgage to another person and tell him “If I give you back your money on such and such date, otherwise the mortgage becomes your property.”