– A contracted slave still bearing the burden of his contract: this refers to a slave who has entered into a manumission agreement yet cannot raise the remainder of the sum required for his freedom. He is therefore given enough to discharge the debt of his contract.
- Lessons derived from the ḥadith:
1 – The report highlights three virtuous deeds:
First: Whoever assists a combatant in the path of Allah, Allah will shade him on the Day when there is no shade except His. Jihad in the path of Allah is the summit and apex of righteous works; thus, anyone who helps the fighter with wealth, by looking after his family, or by any other means, earns this tremendous reward on that arduous Day. The Exalted says, “Co-operate in righteousness and piety” (al-Māʾidah 5:2). In the two Ṣaḥīḥs, Zayd ibn Khālid al-Juhanī reports that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever equips a fighter in the path of Allah has (in effect) fought, and whoever cares for a fighter’s family with goodness has (in effect) fought.”
Second: Helping the debtor (al-ghārim), that is, a person upon whom fines or blood-money remain because he assumed them to reconcile two tribes or the people of two towns. Whoever eases the hardship of the first category and supports the magnanimity and peacemaking of the second, Allah will shade him with His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His. Allah has granted such debtors a share of the zakāh, saying, “and for those in debt” (al-Tawbah 9:60).
Muslim (2699) records from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever relieves a believer of one of the distresses of this world, Allah will relieve him of a distress among the distresses of the Day of Resurrection; whoever eases a person in hardship, Allah will ease him in this world and the Hereafter; and Allah is in the servant’s aid so long as the servant is in his brother’s aid.”
In the Musnad of Aḥmad (11869) and the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd (1641) it is related that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Asking (for charity) is permitted only for three: for one in abject poverty, for one weighed down by a crushing debt, or…"