For example, documents establishing debts owed by people, sales, leases, and the like are not customarily handed over to someone who safeguards the owner’s property; rather, they are handed over to the owner himself—unless he says, “Return them to my family or to the one who safeguards my property.” In that case, it is to be done as he has instructed.

The opposite is the case with a stranger or the judge: they are not held liable if they were unaware. If a danger arises or he intends to travel, he should return it to its owner. If the owner is absent, he should take it with him if it will be more securely protected; otherwise, he should deposit it with a trustworthy person …

His statement, “The opposite is the case with a stranger,” means that the opposite of handing it over to someone who safeguards his own property or the owner’s property is handing it over to a stranger. A stranger is someone who is responsible neither for safeguarding the owner’s property nor for safeguarding the depositary’s property.

This explanation shows us that the meaning of the term ajnabī (stranger) differs according to its context: in one setting it has one meaning, and in another it has a different meaning. Thus, when it is said, “A bequest to a stranger is valid, but not to an heir,” the stranger here means someone who is not an heir. And when it is said, “It is forbidden for a woman to uncover her face before a stranger, while it is permissible before her unmarriageable male relatives,” it means one who is not an unmarriageable male relative. The point is that ajnabī has a context-dependent meaning in every case.

So, if he hands it over to his neighbor, we say that he is liable, because the neighbor is a stranger: he safeguards neither the owner’s property nor the depositary’s property. Thus, if it is destroyed while with the neighbor, he is liable on account of transgression, because he has done something he was not permitted to do—whether it was destroyed through negligence, through transgression, or without either negligence or transgression.

His statement, “and the judge,” refers to the qadi. He is called a judge because he passes judgment between people, and he is called a qadi because he adjudicates between them. If the depositary hands it over to the judge, he is liable, because he was not instructed to hand it over to him. The judge acts as a representative only for one who is absent, deceased, or the like—not for everyone. For example, a man in a city deposits dirhams, and he is told, “Take these ten million...”