and the letter. Then the borrower arrived with the thousand dinars and said, ‘By Allah, I continued striving to find a vessel so that I could bring you your money, but I found none before the vessel on which I have now arrived.’ The lender asked, ‘Did you send me anything?’ He replied, ‘I tell you that I found no vessel before the one on which I came.’ The lender said, ‘Allah has delivered on your behalf the money you sent in the piece of wood. So take your thousand dinars and depart, rightly guided.’”1.

This is a remarkable story related by the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—about this man from the Children of Israel, so that we may take heed and learn from it, and so that we may know the perfection of Allah’s power, the fullness of His aid, and how perfectly He suffices His servant when the servant earnestly turns to Him and sincerely relies upon Him. Consider the perfection of His divine enabling: the piece of wood containing the money fell into no hands but those of its rightful owner. Blessed is Allah, the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful.

A Muslim must not take the matter of debt lightly, downplay its importance, or be negligent in repaying it. Numerous hadiths have been related in the sunnah showing how grave this is and indicating that the believer’s soul remains suspended by debt and that the deceased remains detained on account of his debt until it is repaid on his behalf.

Imam Ahmad narrated from Sa‘d ibn al-Atwal—may Allah be pleased with him—who said: “My brother died and left three hundred dinars and young children. I wanted to spend the money on them, but the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to me, ‘Your brother is being detained on account of his debt, so go and repay it on his behalf.’ I went and repaid it, then returned and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, I have repaid it on his behalf. Only a woman remains who claims two dinars, but she has no proof.’ He said, ‘Give them to her, for she is telling the truth.’”2.