Chapter on the Gratuitous Loan (ʿāriyah)

Introduction

The word ʿāriyah is most commonly pronounced with a doubled yāʾ, though a lighter pronunciation is also permissible. Its plural is ʿawārī—again, with or without doubling. One says: ʿārahu al-shayʾ or aʿārahu iyyāhu (“he lent him the item”).

It is called ʿāriyah, from ʿurī (“bareness”), because it is stripped of any consideration or payment.

Legally, it is the permission to derive benefit from an item that remains intact after use, on the condition that it be returned to its owner.

The contract is concluded by any word or action that indicates it, and its legitimacy is affirmed by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus.

Allah the Exalted says, “and they withhold the small acts of kindness” (7) [al-Maʿūn: 7]. It is also embraced by His words, “Co-operate in righteousness and piety, and do not [co-operate] in sin and aggression” (5:2).

The Prophet ﷺ borrowed coats of mail from Safwān ibn Umayyah (Abu Dawud 3562).

Al-Wazīr and others have said: “The scholars agree that it is permissible, that it is a recommended act of devotion, and that the lender is rewarded for it.”

Al-Muwaffaq stated: “Granting a ʿāriyah is recommended by the consensus of the Muslims.”

Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn (Ibn Taymiyyah) said: “It becomes obligatory when the owner is affluent, in light of the verse; this is one of the positions transmitted from Ahmad.”

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Saʿdī commented on the verse, “and they withhold the small acts of kindness” (al-Maʿūn 7): “That is, they refuse to lend things whose loan does them no harm—such as a pot, an axe, and similar items that people customarily pass around freely. The verse therefore urges benevolence and the giving of minor possessions, for Allah has reproached those who fail to do so. And Allah, exalted is He, knows best.”