Al-Muqaddimāt al-Mumahhidāt - Ibn Rush al-Jadd - (2/466)

Al-Muqaddimāt al-MumahhidātIbn Rush al-Jadd

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Once a person accepts a deposit, he must safeguard and protect it. If he neglects it or contravenes its owner’s instructions concerning it, he is liable for it. He may leave it in the care of members of his household whom he trusts with his own property—a spouse, child, slave woman, mother, or others in a similar position—while keeping it under his own lock. Even so, he must take precautions to safeguard it. He need not have witnesses when handing it over to any of these people, since customary practice is not to call witnesses over what is entrusted to them. Custom has the force of a stipulated condition; this is therefore like being instructed to deliver a deposit to someone with the express stipulation that it be delivered without witnesses.

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A deposit should be kept where property of its kind is ordinarily kept, in accordance with people’s customary ways of securing, protecting, and safeguarding their possessions. Asbagh reports having heard Ibn Wahb being asked about someone who was entrusted with a deposit in the mosque, placed it on his sandals, and then lost it. He replied that the custodian was not liable.

Ibn al-Mājishūn and Mutarrif said: If, however, he forgot it where it had been handed to him and got up and left it behind, he would be liable. Likewise, if it were in his house and he picked it up and put it in his sleeve, thinking it was his own money, and it then fell out, he would be liable, since this constitutes wrongful interference with the deposit.

Abū Ishāq al-Tūnisī said: The imposition of liability for forgetfulness should be open to disagreement, since scholars have disagreed about a case in which one man entrusts another with a deposit, then comes with a second man, both claiming it, while the custodian has forgotten which of them handed it to him. One opinion is that both claimants swear an oath and divide it between them, with no liability falling upon the custodian. Another is that he is liable to each of them because he forgot.

In Ibn Shaʿbān’s book it states: “If someone entrusted with a deposit places it in the neck opening of his shirt and it is lost, he is liable. Another opinion is that he is not liable. The first is more cautious, in view of the hadith: ‘The clouds parted over Medina as an opening is cut in a garment.’ That is, they moved away from Medina just as the neck opening is cut out of a garment. Whatever lies outside a secure enclosure is not itself a secure enclosure.”

His preferred ruling is sound, because the neck opening is not a customary place for keeping deposits, and anyone placing a deposit there exposes it to loss. His reliance on the hadith as evidence, however, has no validity.

فصل فإذا قبلها، وجب عليه حفظها وصيانتها؛ فإن ضيعها أو تعدى أمر صاحبها فيها، فهو ضامن لها وله أن يستدفع ما أودع عند عياله الذين يأمنهم على ماله وهو تحت غلقه من زوج أو ولد أو أمة أو والدة ومن أشبههم، ويحتاط فيها مع هذا؛ ولا إشهاد عليه في دفعها إلى أحد من هؤلاء، لأن العادة والعرف ألا يشهد عليهم فيما يستدفعون إياه، والعرف كالشرط فكان ذلك كالذي يؤمر بدفع الوديعة إلى رجل فيشترط أنه يدفعها إليه بلا إشهاد. فصل وتدفع الوديعة فيما يدفع فيه مثلها وعلى ما جرت به عادة الناس في حرز أموالهم وحياطتها وحفظها، وقد سئل ابن وهب في سماع أصبغ عنه فيمن استودع وديعة في المسجد فجعلها على نعليه فذهبت، فقال: إنه لا ضمان عليه؛ قال ابن الماجشون ومطرف ولو نسيها في الموضع الذي دفعت إليه فيه وقام فتركها لضمن؛ وكذلك لو كانت في داره فأخذها وأدخلها في كمه يظنها دراهمه فسقطت لضمن، لأنها جناية؛ وقال أبو إسحاق التونسي: إن التضمين بالنسيان ينبغي أن يختلف فيه، لأنهم اختلفوا في الرجل يستودع الرجل الوديعة ثم يأتي هو وآخر فيدعيانها جميعا، وينسى هو من دفعها إليه منهما؛ فقيل إنهما يحلفان جميعا ويقتسمانها بينهما - ولا ضمان عليه، وقيل إنه يضمن لكل واحد منهما لنسيانه؛ وفي كتاب ابن شعبان ومن أودع وديعة فجعلها في جيب قميصه فضاعت ضمن، وقيل لا يضمن، والأول أحوط للحديث: فانجابت عن المدينة انجياب الثوب، أي خرجت عن المدينة كما خرج الجيب عن الثوب، وما خرج عن الحرز، فليس بحرز، فأما اختياره فصحيح، لأن الجيب ليس العادة أن تدفع فيه الودائع وجاعلها فيه معرض لتلفها، وأما احتجاجه بالحديث فليس بشيء.