Muwatta 2137

Yahya said: I heard Malik say: the matter on which there is no dispute among us in the pledge is this: whatever pledged thing is of a kind whose loss is known, such as land, a house or an animal, and it is lost in the hands of the pledgee and the loss is known, then it is the pledgor's loss, and does not reduce the pledgee's right at all. But if the pledged thing is lost in the hands of the pledgee and its loss is known only by his word, the loss is the pledgee's, and he is liable for its value. He is told: describe it. When he describes it, he swears to its description and to the sum he claims for it, and then experts value it. If it is worth more than what the pledgee claimed, the pledgor takes the excess. If it is worth less than what he claimed, the pledgor swears to what the pledgee claimed, and the excess the pledgee claimed above the pledge's value is void. ¹

Belongs to the Muwatta, Book of Judgments. Source: the Muwatta. Mentions Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, Malik ibn Anas. Built on in the chapters on pledge (rahn) and judgment (qada).