 In this module, we would be studying higher purchase, which is another example of Ijara. Higher purchase is actually an Ijara contract which ends with the ownership of the asset held by the Lassi. In Arabic, this is also called Ijara Muntahiyah Bitamlik. Ijara means lease, Muntahiyah, which ends Bitamlik with ownership. This form of Ijara, as I said, ends up with the Lassi becoming the owner of the leased asset. How does this happen? The Lassi would lease something to a Lassi with this understanding that at the end of the lease period, the Lassi would own that asset. This happens when the rental in case of Ijara Muntahiyah Bitamlik is determined in such a way that the rental has two components. One is the actual rent and the other component is the price of the asset. Every month, the Lassi would be paying rental, partly rent and partly the small proportion of the price of the asset in such a way that over the lease period, the Lassi would have paid the agreed price of the leased asset. Once that happens, the lease period ends and the Lassi becomes the owner of the asset. And because the Lassi becomes the owner of the asset, there is no need to continue to lease that asset. After all, Lassi becomes the owner of the asset. There are certain important considerations in case of higher purchase. First thing, the Lassi must remain the owner of the leased asset during the lease period. Before the end of the lease period, the Lassi is actually the owner. And this is a requirement that the Lassi must be considered as the owner of the leased asset during that time period so that if something happens to the asset during the lease period, the Lassi must be responsible for that one. If for any reason, the leased asset parishes, the leased asset destroys, during the lease period and during this period the Lassi has actually paid monthly rental. Remember, the monthly rental had two components, the rent as well as the price component. If the leased asset parishes during that period or even at the end of the period just before the ownership is transferred, then unfortunately the Lassi will have to pay back the price component of the rental to the Lassi because as we said in the point one, during the lease period, the Lassi is actually the owner of the asset and if it parishes, the loss would be borne by the owner, not by the Lassi. Of course, if the leased asset parishes and this is because of the negligence of the Lassi, in that case the Lassi would be held responsible for the loss and the loss would be recovered from the Lassi. This is actually a case of a financial lease if certain accounting principles are observed. So, this form of Ijara may be considered as financial lease and this is something which a lot of Islamic banks and other financial institutions are practicing as one of their major activities. Car financing, for example, offered by Islamic banks is based on higher purchase. In some cases, even home financing is based on a principle which is similar to higher purchase. It may be given some other names in various jurisdictions but in terms of procedures and protocols, even home financing offered by Islamic banks is very similar to the concept of higher purchase. Higher purchase, as I said in the beginning, Islamic higher purchase, this is a major activity practiced by not only Islamic banks but by some specialized Islamic financial institutions, especially Ijara companies. In a number of countries, Ijara companies exist as an Islamic financial institution offering this kind of financing.