Is Rental Income Halal?
1. The interpretation of 107:07 is clear now and i agree that it does not make rent haram. 2. Are you saying if loan is secured by an asset, charging a mark up is ok but if loan is not secured we can not ask for a mark up as it falls under eating others wealth unfairly? If i borrow a $10k for my education and agree to return $11k after my graduation it is going to be like the lender is “eating up my wealth” but spending the same amount on buying a computer would magically make the $1000 extra halal earning for the lender? Just because principal sum is somewhat secured by the asset? The principal amount is payable back to the lender no matter i have the computer or not, right? Let’s not worry about the principal sum we just need to focus on the markup part which becomes ‘legal’ if we call it rent and ‘illegal’ when we call it interest in the same transaction. What is the science here?
I borrow a computer, use it and return it in ‘as-is’ form and pay for its usage which is called rent. I borrow cash, buy computer from it, but now I cannot return computer back in ‘as-is’ form, either I’ll be forced to sell that computer to generate cash (which would generate lower cash as compared to its initial market value) or I would have to generate enough cash equaling the cash I borrowed plus the rent on that cash that I just consumed ( which is called riba ). Do you see the problem in second scenario?