your money, but I found no vessel before the one in which I have now come.’ He asked, ‘Had you sent me anything?’ He replied, ‘I am telling you that I found no vessel other than the one in which I have come.’ He said, ‘Allah has delivered on your behalf what you sent in the piece of wood.’ So he went away with the thousand dinars, in peace.”

Concerning the term qabīl (guarantor), Allah, Most High, says:

“Or you bring Allah and the angels before us.” [al-Isrā’: 92]

The term adhīn (guarantor) is derived from His words, Most High:

“And when your Lord declared that He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection, those who would afflict them with the worst torment.” [al-A‘rāf: 167]

And from His words:

“And when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you; but if you are ungrateful, My punishment is indeed severe.’” [Ibrāhīm: 7]

The poet said:

“I said, ‘Enough for me! Lower your gaze;
I pledge to depart, and to make haste.’”

Imru’ al-Qays said:

“If I return invested with kingship, I pledge
A march that will make al-fawātiq turn aside.”

Adhīn bears the meaning of hamīl (guarantor) because adhīn, adhān, idhn, and their related forms all convey the meaning of making something known. Making something known necessarily concerns an established certainty that cannot be otherwise, for it derives from knowledge, which is knowing a thing as it actually is. This differs from reporting: reality may contradict what is reported, since a report admits of both truth and falsehood. Thus, when a man says, ‘I am guarantor for what so-and-so owes so-and-so,’ he binds himself to pay the creditor that money, because this expression is used only for something binding and certain, which cannot be otherwise. And Allah knows best.

The term hamīl (guarantor) is derived from His words