There are several types of ijarah: Ijarah thumma al bai' (hire purchase) Ijarah thumma al bai (literally "renting/hiring/leasing followed by sale") involves the customer renting/hiring/leasing a good and agreeing to purchase it, paying both the lease/rental fee and the purchase price in installments so that by the end of the lease it owns the good free and clear. This involves two Islamic contracts (very much like "Diminishing Musharaka" above): an Ijarah that outlines the terms for leasing or renting over a fixed period; a Bai that outlines the terms for a sale to be completed by the end of the term of the Ijarah. It is very important from the standpoint of shariah law for the Ijarah and Bai not to be combined, but to be two separate contracts. An example would be in an automobile financing facility, a customer enters into the first contract and leases the car from the owner (bank) at an agreed amount over a specific period. When the lease period expires, the second contract comes into effect, which enables the customer to purchase the car at an agreed price. (This type of transaction is similar to the contractum trinius, a legal maneuver used by European bankers and merchants during the Middle Ages to sidestep the Church's prohibition on interest bearing loans. In a contractum, two parties would enter into three (trinius) concurrent and interrelated legal contracts, the net effect being the paying of a fee for the use of money for the term of the loan. The use of concurrent interrelated contracts is also prohibited under Shariah Law.) Ijarah wa-iqtina Ijarah wa-iqtina (literally, "lease and ownership" also called al ijarah muntahia bitamleek) also involves a ijarah followed by sale of leased asset to the lessee, but in an ijara wa iqtina contract the transfer of ownership occurs as soon as the lessee pays the purchase price of the asset—anytime during the leasing period. An Islamically correct ijara wa iqtina contract "rests" on three conditions: The lease and the transfer of ownership of the asset or the property should be recorded in separate documents. The agreement to transfer of ownership should not be a pre-condition to the signing of the leasing contract. The "promise" to transfer the ownership should be unilateral and should be binding only on the lessor. ijara mawsoofa bi al dhimma In a "forward ijarah" or ijara mawsoofa bi al dhimma Islamic contract