Chapter: The ruling on salaf—that is, a loan

Every loan is payable on demand unless a term is expressly stipulated; then it is not due until that appointed time, and the creditor has no right to seek payment before it. Should the borrower offer repayment before maturity, the creditor must accept it—whether the repayment is in goods (ʿarḍ) or in specie (ʿayn)—provided it is tendered in the same place where the loan was taken. If he repays in a different place, the creditor is not obliged to accept it when the repayment is goods; if he consents, however, it is permissible.

With assets that involve no burden of transport, such as dinars, dirhams, and the like, the debtor may discharge the debt in another town, and the creditor can be compelled to accept it.

Whoever borrows something that does entail transport costs, it is not a specific item, and no place of repayment was fixed, must repay in the locality where he received the loan. If the creditor meets him elsewhere and demands settlement there, the borrower is not bound to comply; rather, he must appoint an agent to receive the payment in the original town. If, after the term has fallen due, the two agree to settle in the other town, that is permissible; before the due date, it is not.

Imam Mālik gave two reports regarding a specific object: may the creditor reclaim that very item wherever he finds it? In one report he disliked it; in another he allowed it. The sound position is that, once the term is due, the creditor may take possession of the very coins owed to him wherever he finds them, provided they are of a single mint, whether gold or silver.

If a man lends gold or silver and the borrower, without any prior stipulation, repays him with coins of better quality and greater weight, that is valid. Mālik and the majority of scholars nonetheless disliked an increase in number, saying that excellence in repayment lies in giving the creditor superior specie and higher grade, whereas increasing the quantity—