Ada' al-dayn (paying a debt: its ruling, the manner of payment, insolvency and the debts of the dead)

A debt is a description fixed in the liability, or the occupation of the liability by money owed for some cause: a contract (sale, surety, settlement, khul'), a consequence of a contract (such as maintenance), or other causes (usurpation, zakat, compensation for destroyed goods). The money owed in the liability is called debt by extension, because it tends toward money. ¹

Paying a debt in the form owed is obligatory by consensus, on the verse of the Cow about the trust. Some jurists count it among basic needs. A debt that is due now must be paid at once on demand, when the debtor can pay, on the hadith that the delay of a wealthy person is wrongdoing. A deferred debt is not due before its term; if paid early, the payment is valid and discharges the debtor. ¹ A deferred debt becomes due at once on apostasy, death or insolvency (taflis). ²

Payment is handing the right to its holder. In debts it is made in like items, since there is no other way; money received in exchange (sarf) and in advance sale (salam) has the status of the very right, so the creditor can be compelled to take it. For things with no like, such as usurped goods and destroyed property, the value is owed. In a loan, if a like is unavailable, some hold that the like in kind and form must be returned, on the report of Abu Rafi' about a young camel borrowed by the Prophet ﷺ. ² Paying with something better is allowed if there was no condition: the Prophet borrowed a young camel and returned a better one, saying the best of people are the best in repayment. A debtor asked to pay in another town, for something with no carriage or cost, must pay. ^{2 3}

A debt is discharged when the debtor pays in the due form. Remission, gift or charity of the debt by the creditor also discharges it, as do assignment (hawala), set-off (muqasa), expiry of the term, settlement, and a slave's disabling himself in the price of his manumission, each under conditions the jurists set out. ²

A solvent debtor must pay. If he delays after the creditors ask, the judge compels him, and if he still refuses he is imprisoned for unjust delay, on the hadith that a rich man's delay licenses his censure and punishment. If he has apparent property, the judge sells it; a report says the Prophet sold Mu'adh's property to pay his debts, and that Umar sold the property of al-Asyaf and divided it among his creditors. ³ If his property does not cover his debts and the creditors ask for interdiction (hajr), the judge must grant it, bar him from disposing of his property, sell it, and divide it among the creditors in shares. This is the view of the Shafi'is, Hanbalis, Malikis, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad; Abu Hanifa disagreed, holding that interdiction disregards a person's dignity, and that the judge only imprisons him while he still has property to sell. If the property is money of the same kind as the debt, the judge pays from it without his consent. ³

An insolvent debtor whose insolvency is proven is released and given respite, on the verse of the Cow about the person in hardship. He must earn to pay, but cannot be compelled to earn or to accept gifts and charity; whatever he gains is subject to his creditors' claims. A debtor (gharim) who borrowed for himself in a lawful matter may have his debt paid from zakat, one of its categories. ³

When a person dies in debt, the debt attaches to his estate and is paid before bequests are carried out and before the heirs take their shares. The debt is owed, freeing the liability is among a person's most pressing needs, and performing an obligation takes priority over gifts. The Qur'an places the debt before division, in the verse of Women about bequest and debt. A hadith says the soul of the believer is held back by his debt until it is paid. ^{3 4} This applies to debts owed to people; debts owed to God, such as zakat, expiations and vows, are treated elsewhere in the encyclopedia. ⁴