Chapter on Settlement (ṣulḥ)

If the defendant admits owing a debt or a specific item to the claimant, and the claimant then waives or gifts him part of it while leaving the rest, the settlement is valid so long as they had not stipulated that arrangement beforehand.1 Any gratuitous donation offered by the defendant is of no effect. Should the claimant remit part of a debt that is already due and defer the balance, only the remission is effective.

A settlement is likewise void if a deferred debt is commuted for part of it to be paid immediately—or the reverse; or if he acknowledges a house to belong to the claimant but they agree instead that he may live in it for one year,2 or that he build a room over it for him. The same ruling applies when he negotiates with a legally responsible person so that the latter will acknowledge being his slave, or with a woman so that she will acknowledge being his wife, in return for compensation. Such a settlement is invalid. However, if both of them voluntarily offer that compensation to him as a settlement for his claim, it is valid.3

If he says, “Acknowledge the debt you owe me and I will give you such-and-such from it,” and the other complies, the acknowledgment stands but the settlement does not.

Section

When a person is sued for a specific property or a debt, keeps silent, or denies it because he does not know, and then settles the case for money, the settlement is valid and the money becomes the claimant’s. It is treated as a sale: the claimant may return any defective item4 and may annul the transaction.5