“Allāh will give shelter to His servant who gives respite to one in straitness or remits to a debtor” (Ah. I, p. 73). “Whoever gives respite to one in straitness or makes a remission in his favour, Allāh will save him from the vehement raging of the heat of Hell” (Ah. I, p. 327). “There is no believer but I am nearest to him in this world and the Hereafter … so any believer who leaves behind him property, his relatives shall inherit whoever they may be, but if he leaves a debt, or a family for whom there is none to care, I am his maulā (guardian)” (Bu. 65, sūra 33, ch. 1). “I am nearer to the believers than themselves, so whoever of the believers dies and leaves a debt, its payment is on me, and whoever leaves property, it is for his heirs” (Bu. 69:15). These ḥadīth show that the debts of a debtor who is in straitened circumstances and unable to pay must either be remitted or paid by the state.
While the lender is advised in numerous ḥadīth to be lenient and not to exert undue pressure, and to remit, if the debtor is in straitened circumstances, part, or even the whole, of a debt, the debtor is also told to repay the debt in a goodly and liberal manner (Bu. 40:5, 6). In the ḥadīth narrated in these chapters, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said:
“Among the best of you are those who are good in payment of debt.” The rich, especially, are told not to postpone payment of debt. Postponement in their case is called injustice (zulm) (Bu. 38:1, 2). The man who contracts a debt intending not to pay it back is condemned (Ah. II, p. 417). The ḥadīth has already been quoted which shows that the payment of debt has preference over spending in charity. In the case of an inheritance, the heirs do not take their shares until all debts have been paid (Ah. IV, p. 136); and when there is a will, the debts must be paid before its execution (Ah. I, p. 79).
Though the necessity of contracting debts at time is recognized, and the Holy Prophet himself is reported to have done so on occasion, yet he, at the same time, gave warning against being in a state of indebtedness. It is related in a ḥadīth that “he used to pray very