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Chapter
25:
Debts and Mortgage (Hadith -- The
Traditions):
(Note:
The superscript-numbers [e.g., intention2]
that
appear in the text [in
pink]
refer to the numbers of the explanatory footnotes that
appear at the end of each Hadith
[Tradition].)
1
`A'ishah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, used to pray, while saying prayers, and to
say:
"O Allah! I seek refuge in
Thee from sin and from being in debt."
Someone asked him, How often dost
thou, O Messenger of Allah! seek refuge from being in debt.
He said:
"When a man is in debt he
speaks and tells lies, and he promises and breaks the
promise." (B. 43 : 10.)
2
Salamah reported,
A bier was brought to the Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, that he may say funeral prayers over it. He
said:
"Was he in debt?"
They said, No. So he said prayers over
it. Another bier was brought to him and he said :
"Was he in debt?"
They said, Yes. He said :
"Say prayers over your
companion."
Abu Qatadah said, I will pay his debt,
O Messenger of Allah! So he said funeral prayers over
it.1
(B. 39 : 3.)
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1
The Holy Prophet did not forbid the saying of
funeral prayers over the bier of a person who was
in debt. By refusing to say prayers himself, he
wanted only to discourage the habit of contracting
debts when one had not the means to pay. According
to another version of the same hadith (B. 38 : 3),
the Holy Prophet said funeral prayers over a person
who was in debt but who had left property from
which the debt could be paid. As shown further on
(h. 8), the Holy Prophet himself undertook the
payment of the debts of those who died in debt
later on, when the state treasury had the means to
pay them.
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3
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him,
said:
"Whoever contracts a debt
intending to repay it, Allah will pay it on his
behalf,2
and whoever contracts a debt intending to waste it, Allah
will bring him to ruin." (B. 43 : 2.)
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2
The significance is that Allah grants him the means
to pay it.
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4
Abu Dharr said,
I was with the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, When he saw (the mount) of Uhud, he said:
"I do not like this
(mountain) should be turned into gold for me, then there
should remain with me one dinar out of it beyond three
days, except a dinar which I should keep for payment of a
debt."
Then he said:
"The wealthier are the poorer
except he who gives away wealth thus and thus, and they
are very few."3
(B. 43 : 3.)
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3
To get more and more wealth becomes a passion with
wealthy people, and this passion deprives them of
the noblest human sentiments. Hence they are said
to be the poorer. The narrator, while saying thus
and thus, moved his hands right and left, to show
that wealth must be given away liberally if one has
the good fortune to possess it.
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5
Jabir said,
I came to the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, while he was in the mosque; so he said:
"Say two rak`ahs of prayer."
And he owed me a debt; so he paid it
to me and gave me more (than was due).4
(B. 43 : 7.)
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4
Thus, if the debtor of his own free will gives more
than what is due, it is not usury or
interest.
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6
Abu Hurairah said:
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"Delaying the payment of debt
by a well-to-do person is injustice." (B. 43 :
12.)
7
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, is
reported to have said:
"Deferring payment by one who
has the means to pay legalizes his punishment and his
honour."5
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5
The legalization of `irdz (honour) is the
using of harsh words, and that of `uqubah
(punishment) is imprisonment (B. 43 : 13). Thus it
is only the rich man who can be sent to prison for
refusing to pay his debt; regarding the man in
straitened circumstances, the law of Islam is that
recommended in H. xxii : 5 -- the debt should be
remitted.
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8
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, said:
"Whoever leaves property, it is for
his heirs; and whoever leaves a burden, it shall be our
charge."6
(B. 43 : 11.)
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6
Kall (burden) includes both a family to maintain
and debts to be paid. It is thus the Muslim state
that is required to undertake both the maintenance
of uncared-for families and the payment of unpaid
debts.
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9
`A'ishah said,
The Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be on him, bought
food from a Jew for payment to be made at an appointed time,
and he mortgaged for it a coat-of-mail made of iron.
(B. 43 : 1.)
10
Abu Hurairah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"The mortgaged animal may be
used for riding, when it is mortgaged, on account of what
is spent on it, and the milk of a milch animal may be
drunk when it is mortgaged, and the expenditure shall be
borne by him who rides (the animal) and drinks (the
milk)."7
(B. 48 : 4.)
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7
Hh. 9 and 10 show that the law relating to mortgage
as laid down in the Holy Qur'an (v. 2) is not
limited to cases when one is journeying or when
there is no scribe. The law is a general one, the
only limitation being that the property mortgaged
shall be in the possession of the mortgagee. This
hadith shows that when a person has to spend money
on the thing mortgaged, he is entitled to derive
benefit from it. Hence a house or land can be
mortgaged subject to the condition that the
possession shall be made over to the mortgagee who
is entitled to live in the house or let it on hire,
if he carries out the repairs, and to till the land
and have the produce of it if he spends on
it.
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11
Abu Hurairah said,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"Whoever finds his property
itself with a man who has become insolvent, he has a
greater right to it than others." (B. 43 : 14.)
12
Sa`id ibn al-Musayyib said,
`Uthman decided that whoever takes his due before a man
becomes insolvent, it is his, and whoever recognises his
property itself with an insolvent has a greater right to
it.8
(B. 43 : 14.)
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8
The rules laid down in hh. 11, 12 are subject to
the condition that there is no
collusion.
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13
`A'ishah said,
When the verses of the chapter al-Baqarah, relating to
usury, were revealed the Prophet, peace and blessings of
Allah be on him, went forth to the mosque and recited them
to the people, then he forbade trading in intoxicating
liquors.9
(B. 8 : 73.)
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9
Parts of the verses referred to here are quoted in
the heading of this chapter (vv. 3, 4). In v. 3, it
is stated that Allah has allowed trade and
forbidden usury, but as intoxicants were prohibited
to Muslims, the Holy Prophet made it clear, when
reciting this verse, that trade in intoxicants was
also prohibited.
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14
Jabir reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, cursed the usurer and the man who pays usury and the
writer of the transaction and the two witnesses thereof and
he said:
"They are
alike."10
(M-Msh. 12 :
4.)
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10
The Arabic word which is here translated as usury
is riba (an excess or addition), and means
an addition over the above principal sum that is
lent (LL), and thus includes both usury and
interest. The Holy Qur'an compares the devourers of
usury to those whom the Devil has prostrated by his
touch (2 : 275), indicating that usury leads to
selfishness of the worst type. Islam aims at a
co-operative system of trade and banking, so that
the capitalist should share the profit as well as
the loss of the borrower. The underlying idea in
the prohibition of interest on money is that labour
is a higher asset than money.
The hadith quoted here
condemns the payer of the usury and the scribe and
the witnesses along with the usurer, because they
abet the crime.
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15
Abu Hurairah reported,
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be on
him, said:
"A time will come over people
when not a single person will remain who does not swallow
down usury, and if one does not swallow it, its vapour
will overtake him."11
(AD-Msh. 12 :
4.)
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11
This is a prophecy relating to the present time.
Material civilization has at its culmination
brought about a state of things when no transaction
can be carried on without payment of
interest.
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Top
Hadith
Section
> A
Manual of Hadith
> Chapter 25: Debts and Mortgage (Hadith -- The
Traditions)
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