the pronoun refers to the pledged property. “Without any transgression on his part, then he is not liable for anything.” But if he has transgressed, then liability rests upon him—that is, upon the pledgee. Likewise, if he has been negligent, he is liable. Accordingly, the author’s wording should be supplemented: “without any transgression or negligence.”

The difference between transgression and negligence is that transgression means doing what is not permitted, whereas negligence means failing to do what is required.

For example, if a person takes a she-camel as collateral from another person, but does not care for it properly and the cold kills it, we say: this is negligence, because he was required to place it in a warm location so that it would not die.

Another example: a man pledges a camel, and then the pledgee begins using it for carrying loads and exhausting it. We call this transgression.

If the pledgee transgresses or is negligent, he is liable; but if he neither transgresses nor is negligent, he is not liable. The reason is that he took possession of it from its owner with the latter’s permission, so it is held by him in trust.

His statement, “Nothing of his debt is waived by its destruction,” means the pledged property.

His statement, “anything of his debt,” means the debt he owes; rather, the debt remains exactly as it was.

An example of this is a man who borrows from someone and pledges his car as collateral. The car then burns down, while it had been pledged against a debt of fifty thousand riyals. Is any part of the debt waived in return for the loss caused by the fire?

The answer is no. This is why he said, “anything”: it is an indefinite noun occurring in the context of