Ease of means (maysura) and respite for a debtor in hardship

Maysura means ease and wealth, the opposite of hardship; the verse on debt in al-Baqara (280) uses the word. ¹

The jurists agree that a debtor who has the means, with a debt that is due and claimed, must pay without delay or evasion, citing the saying: the delay of the wealthy is a wrong. One who refuses while able is a wrongdoer; the jurists differ on the penalty, whether he is imprisoned or held under surveillance. ^{1 2}

If a debtor cannot pay a due debt because his insolvency is established before the judge or the creditor, respite until he is at ease is recommended, citing the verse on debt and the hadith: whoever grants respite to a debtor in hardship earns a charity for each day before the debt falls due, and twice that after it falls due. Also the hadith: whoever grants respite or remits the debt will be shaded by God, and the story of the man who ordered his servants to overlook those in hardship. ²

Insolvency and its rules are treated under the entry on insolvency (i'sar). ²