Debt (dayn) in fiqh

A debt in the jurists' term is a binding right in the liability (dhimma), which is the best definition. It covers money and other things, such as a missed prayer or zakat. ¹ Debts attach to the debtor's liability, not to his property, except where secured by a pledge, where a bankrupt is under restraint, where a dying sick man is concerned, or where the estate is concerned. ^{6 7}

The default is that a person is free of any obligation until a cause binds him, and the jurists count nine causes. ² Among them: a financial undertaking in a contract (sale, salam, loan, hire, surety) or a one-sided undertaking such as a vow. ² Wrongful acts such as a killing that owes diya and the destruction of another's property, or the excess of a trustee. ³ Loss of goods in the hands of a guarantor, and the fulfilment of a legal trigger for a financial right, such as a full year on zakat property, or maintenance of a wife or relative. ³ Financial levies imposed by the imam when the treasury cannot meet public needs, under conditions. ^{3 4} Paying what one thought was owed when it was not, which lets one reclaim it; paying an obligation at another's request, as a surety or on a referral; a lawful act done under necessity that destroys another's property, for which the doer is liable by the majority; and a useful act done for another without permission, on which the schools differ. ^{4 5 9 10}

By attachment a debt is open or secured (by a pledge, a deposit, or the estate). Secured creditors are paid first from the asset during the debtor's life, and by the majority before the funeral from the estate. ^{10 11} By strength a debt is one of health or of terminal illness; when the estate is ample they are paid alike, and when it is not the schools disagree on priority. ^{11 12 13} By creditor a debt is owed to God or to a human; by validity it is firm or can lapse; by sharing it is joint or separate; and by term it is due or deferred. ^{13 14 15}

A debt may be secured by writing, witnesses, a pledge, or a surety. Most jurists hold writing and witnesses to be recommended, while al-Tabari holds writing to be obligatory; most hold a pledge to be a matter of guidance, not obligation. ^{16 17 18 19 20} As for suretyship, the jurists differ on what it does to the debt, but all agree that the surety is bound to pay when the principal cannot. ^{20 21}

The creditor may transfer a debt to the debtor, with or without payment, in what is firmly his; the majority forbid selling a debt for a debt, and require payment in the session in some exchanges. ^{21 22 23} On transfer to someone other than the debtor the schools differ: the Hanafis allow it through agency, referral or bequest; the Shafi'is in one view allow it if the debt is due and the debtor solvent and admits it; the Malikis allow it under eight conditions. ^{24 25} The debtor's dispositions are limited to referral (hawala) and the bill of exchange (suftaja). ²⁵

A debt in coin of metal (gold or silver) is paid in the same metal, whatever its rise or fall in price. ^{25 26} A debt in a coin by convention is treated in five cases: general withdrawal, local withdrawal, scarcity, disappearance, and rise or fall in value; the schools differ on what is owed in each. ^{26 27 28 29 30 31}

A debt ends by payment to the creditor or his agent, by release, by set-off, by merger of the two liabilities, by the end of its cause, by renewal, by referral, and, in the Hanafi view, by the debtor's death insolvent. Lapse of time does not end a debt; it only bars a claim. ^{32 33 34}