Every item from which lawful benefit may be derived may be lent for use, except sexual access, a Muslim slave to a disbeliever, game and the like to a person in ihram, and a young female slave to anyone other than a woman or an unmarriageable male relative.

His statement, “Every item from which lawful benefit may be derived may be lent for use”: the author, may Allah have mercy on him, did not explain the ruling of a loan for use with respect to either the lender or the borrower; rather, he explained the ruling concerning the item lent. We therefore say: with respect to the borrower, it is permissible, and it is not regarded as the blameworthy kind of asking, since it is customary. Thus, a person may borrow from his brother a pen, a watch, a car, a vessel, or the like.

As for the lender, lending for use is recommended as a general rule, though it may sometimes be obligatory. It is recommended because it falls under the general meaning of Allah’s saying: “And do good; indeed, Allah loves the doers of good” [2:195]. It is undoubtedly an act of kindness and thus falls under the general meaning of the verse.

It may sometimes be obligatory, such as lending someone a cloak with which he can ward off the harm of the cold. Thus, if someone asks you during severe cold to give him a cloak to wrap himself in, you must give it to him. The criterion is that whenever saving a person whose life is inviolable depends upon it, it becomes obligatory. Included in this, according to many scholars, is lending copies of the Quran, because a copy of the Quran must be made available to whoever wishes to learn from it.

Also included is lending books that people need; lending them becomes obligatory. However, this is conditional upon the borrower’s need and the absence of harm to the lender. Thus, if, when asked to lend a copy of the Quran, the lender says, “If I give this man a copy of the Quran, he will ruin it,” then lending it is not obligatory for him. Likewise, if he says, “If I give him the book, he will ruin it,” then lending it is not obligatory, because it would harm the lender.

Some people—who exert themselves but are mistaken—borrow a book and then begin writing annotations in it, even though the book does not belong to them. You find them filling the book with comments between the lines, in the margins, in the footnotes, and at the top, until it can scarcely be read.