he may likewise recover the expense, in order to preserve the pledged property itself; for if he did not repair it, its deterioration would worsen and spread, and it would become ruined, causing harm to both the pledgor and the pledgee.

The third case is where the pledgor has not authorized him to carry out the repairs, though it is possible to seek his permission, but the pledgee repairs it without first seeking permission. In this case, he may not recover the expense. If he spent without intending reimbursement, then he is acting voluntarily, and one who acts voluntarily may not recover what he has given voluntarily, because recovering a voluntary gift is equivalent to taking back a gift, which is forbidden. If, however, he intended reimbursement, then he has been negligent, since he did not seek the owner’s permission. He was required to seek that permission, but failed to do so.

If the pledgee says, “I repaired it for our mutual benefit—mine and his,” we say: If the benefit is shared by you both, then let the repair be at the expense of you both. That is, you should carry out the repairs with his permission, in which case you may recover the expense. But if you do not seek his permission despite being able to do so, then the expense is yours.

Question: Suppose that spending on it becomes necessary in a situation requiring immediate action before permission can be sought—for example, the pledged property has fallen into a well. If we leave it until we go and seek the pledgor’s permission, it will perish; but if we immediately bring someone to extract it from the well, it will be saved. In this case, he may recover the expense, because this involves saving another person’s property from destruction. Whoever saves another’s property from ruin is entitled to reimbursement equivalent to his work.

His statement, “And if seeking permission is impossible, he may recover” (1), is subject to the condition that he intends reimbursement. This is what is mentioned in al-Rawḍ. However, the apparent meaning of the author’s words is that he may recover unless he intended to make a voluntary gift, because the author did not stipulate the intention of reimbursement. The correct view is that of the main text: he may recover