Ruling Two: If someone finds the very article he had previously sold, lent, or leased to the debtor before the interdiction was imposed, he is entitled to reclaim it and remove it from the insolvent’s estate, in view of the Prophet’s statement ﷺ: “Whoever comes upon his property with a man who has become insolvent is more entitled to it.” Agreed upon.

The jurists—may Allah have mercy on them—stipulate six conditions for the right of a person who finds his property with an interdicted insolvent to take it back:

1. The debtor must still be alive when the owner takes back his property. Abu Dawud relates that the Prophet ﷺ said: “If he dies, the owner of the merchandise is on a par with the other creditors.”

2. The entire purchase price must still be outstanding in the debtor’s liability. If the owner has already received any portion of the price, he no longer has the right of reclamation.

3. The whole article must still be in the debtor’s ownership. If only part of it remains, the owner may not reclaim it, for he has not found the entire item but only a portion of it.

4. The item must be in its original condition; none of its defining attributes may have changed.

5. No third-party rights may have attached to the item—for example, the debtor must not have pledged it as collateral.

6. The item must not have undergone any inherent increase that becomes inseparable from it, such as an animal’s fattening.

When these conditions are met, the owner is permitted to withdraw his property once the insolvency of the person holding it becomes apparent, in accordance with the aforementioned hadith.