Ijarah, (Arabic: الإجارة, al-Ijārah, "to give something on rent" or "providing services and goods temporarily for a wage" (a noun, not a verb)), is a term of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and product in Islamic banking and finance. In traditional fiqh, it means a contract for the hiring of persons or renting/leasing of the services or the “usufruct” of a property, generally for a fixed period and price. In hiring, the employer is called musta’jir, while the employee is called ajir. Ijarah need not lead to purchase. In conventional leasing an "operating lease" does not end in a change of ownership, nor does the type of ijarah known as al-ijarah (tashghiliyah).

In Islamic finance, al Ijarah does lead to purchase (Ijara wa Iqtina, or "rent and acquisition") and usually refers to a leasing contract of property (such as land, plant, office automation, a motor vehicle), which is leased to a client for stream of rental and purchase payments, ending with a transfer of ownership to the lessee, and otherwise follows Islamic regulations.

Islamic finance theorist Taqi Usmani lists seventeen "Basic Rules of Leasing" (leasing referring to Islamic leasing which Usmani uses interchangeably with ijarah) in his work Islamic Finance: Principles and Practice — although "the principles of ijarah are so numerous that a separate volume is required for their full discussion". Some of the rules include agreeing on the cost of the lease and the period of time for which it will last; clear terms in the contract; agreeing on purpose the lessee will use the property for, which they must stick to; the lessor (owner of the leased property) agreeing to bear all the "liabilities emerging from the ownership", etc. Usmani lists eleven "basic differences between the contemporary financial leasing" and "leasing allowed by the Shari‘ah".

Faleel Jamaldeen lists three features of ijarah that distinguish it from conventional leasing:

There are several types of ijarah:

In this transaction (hire purchase or Lease-Sale or Financial Lease) the customer leases (hires) a good and agrees to purchase it, paying in installments so that by the end of the lease it owns the good free and clear. This involves two contracts:

One Islamic Bank (Devon Bank) describes the process as follows

An ijarah transaction involves two components: a purchase agreement and a lease. You go out and find the property you would like us to purchase on your behalf. You negotiate the price and other aspects of the purchase. You make any initial payment of earnest money to reserve the property. You make sure that the purchase contract allows [the] Bank to step into the transaction as the buyer. The Bank then buys the property. At the closing, the Bank enters into an agreement to sell the property to you for a fixed price-the purchase price the Bank paid plus any transaction costs not paid by you at the closing. Ownership of the property is transferred to you after this price has been paid to the Bank. A payment schedule is established so that in exchange for keeping the property rented, your payments are deferred over time.