“If someone is in hardship, grant him respite until a time of ease.” [al-Baqarah: 280] This differs from Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s position that an insolvent person should be hired out to discharge his debts. This was also Ibn Shihāb’s position, as related by al-Tahāwī, who said, “I know of no one else who held this view.” It also differs from Shurayh’s position that he should be imprisoned for debt, since, in his view, the verse concerned usury alone. Were that so, the reading would have been, “If he is a person in hardship, grant him respite until a time of ease,” with dhā ‘usrah. Instead, the reading is dhū ‘usrah, meaning “if a person in hardship is found” or “is present.” It therefore applies generally to debts arising from usury and to other debts. This has already been discussed.

It is reported that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, was informed that a man from Juhaynah used to buy riding camels at high prices, then travel swiftly and outpace the pilgrims, until he became insolvent. ‘Umar stood and said: “To proceed: al-Usayfi‘—the Usayfi‘ of Juhaynah—was content to compromise his faith and trustworthiness merely to have it said that he had outpaced the pilgrims. He lent money on credit and has now himself become burdened with debt. Whoever has a claim against him should come to us, so that we may distribute his property among his creditors in the morning. Beware of debt, for it begins with anxiety and ends in destitution.”

It is reported that a man overwhelmed by debt was brought before ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz, may Allah be pleased with him. He ruled that the man’s property should be distributed among his creditors and that he should then be left alone until Allah provided for him.

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In the early days of Islam, the Prophet, peace be upon him, ruled that a debtor who lacked sufficient means to discharge his debts should be sold to repay them. This accorded with his practice of following the laws of earlier prophets in matters concerning which no revelation had come to him, for their laws permitted the enslavement of free persons. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, says in the account of Joseph, peace be upon him:

“What, then, shall the penalty be if you are lying?” [Yūsuf: 74] “They said, ‘The penalty is that the person in whose baggage it is found shall himself be taken as recompense.’” [Yūsuf: 75]

That is, he would be enslaved—for a year, according to one view, or permanently, according to another. They thus passed judgment upon themselves according to the ruling of their father Jacob, peace be upon him. That is why Joseph let them determine the penalty: to enable him thereby to take his brother. Under the king’s law, the stolen property could only be recovered from the thief, or he could be made to pay its value or twice its value. Another example is the report that a poor man asked al-Khidr to give charity