Chapter
The guidance of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, in his dealings
He was the best of people in his dealings. Whenever he borrowed something, he would repay it with something better (1). When he borrowed from a man, he would repay him and supplicate for him, saying: “May Allah bless your family and wealth. A loan deserves only thanks and repayment” (2).
He once borrowed forty sā' (measures of capacity) from a man. When this man, who was one of the Helpers of Medina, fell into need, he came to him. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Nothing has come to us yet.” The man began to speak, but the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “Say only what is good, for I am the best of borrowers.” He then gave him forty as an additional gift and forty in repayment of his loan, giving him eighty in all. This was related by al-Bazzār (3).
(1) Mālik (1986), and Muslim (1600) through him, relate from Abū Rāfi‘, the freedman of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), that the Prophet borrowed a young camel and repaid the loan with a choice male camel in its seventh year, saying: “Give it to him, for the best people are those who repay their debts best.”
(2) Related by Ahmad (16410), al-Nasā’ī in al-Mujtabā (4683) and al-Kubrā (6236, 10132), and Ibn Mājah (2424), through Ismā‘īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Abī Rabī‘a al-Makhzūmī, from his father, from his grandfather. Al-Albānī graded the hadith authentic in al-Irwā’ (5:224). In Ahmad’s version, the name Ismā‘īl ibn Ibrāhīm was reversed to Ibrāhīm ibn Ismā‘īl; it appears correctly in Atrāf al-Musnad (2:709). See also the commentary on al-Musnad.
(3) Al-Bazzār records it in his Musnad (11:356), stating: “We know of no transmission of this hadith from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) with a connected chain except through this route and this chain. We heard this hadith only from Ahmad ibn Khuzayma, who was trustworthy.” Al-Haythamī states in Majma‘ al-zawā’id (4:141): “Its narrators are narrators used in the Sahīh, except for al-Bazzār’s teacher, who is trustworthy.” The chain includes Ibn Jurayj’s ‘an‘anah (transmission using the formula “from,” without explicitly stating direct hearing). His teacher is ‘Atā’: if this is al-Khurāsānī, he never heard anything from Ibn ‘Abbās. Yahyā al-Qattān said: “Ibn Jurayj’s transmission from ‘Atā’ al-Khurāsānī is weak” [Jāmi‘ al-tahsīl, pp. 229, 238]. If, however, this is Ibn Abī Rabāh, the possibility of tadlīs (concealing an intermediary in transmission) by Ibn Jurayj cannot be ruled out.