Zād al-Mustaqniʿ - Al-Hajjawi - (116)

Chapter on Suretyship

Suretyship is valid only when offered by someone who is legally competent to transact.1 The creditor may seek payment from whichever of the two he prefers—principal or guarantor—both during their lifetimes and after their deaths. If the principal’s liability is discharged,2 the guarantor is automatically released as well, but not the other way around.

The guarantor does not have to know either the debtor or the creditor; what matters is the guarantor’s own consent.3

One may guarantee an unspecified obligation provided that it will eventually be determined—such as items lent for use, usurped goods, merchandise taken for inspection, and the warranty for defects in a sale.4 There is no suretyship for property held merely in trust; liability arises only when the trustee oversteps the limits.

(1) In copy “B”: min ghayr jayyiz al-tasarruf (from someone who lacks legal capacity to dispose). (2) This is the reading in the extant copies and it matches al-Muqniʿ; in copy “M” the wording is bariʾat dhimma al-damin (the guarantor’s liability is discharged). (3) Manuscript “A” omits the negation la ("not"). (4) In copy “M”: mabiʿ (the object sold).

باب الضمان لا يصح الضمان إلا من١ جائز التصرف ولرب الحق مطالبة من شاء منهما في الحياة والموت فإن برئت ذمة المضمون عنه برئ٢ الضامن لا عكسه. ولا تعتبر معرفة الضامن للمضمون عنه ولا له٣ بل رضا الضامن. ويصح ضمان المجهول إذا آل إلى العلم العواري الغصوب والمقبوض بسوم وعهدة المبيع٤ لا ضمان الأمانات بل التعدي فيها.

١في "ب": من غير جائز التصرف. ٢هكذا في النسخ وهو موافق للمقنع، وفي "م": برثت ذمة الضامن. ٣سقط من "أ": لا. ٤في "م" مبيع.