Book of Pledges
Chapter: The Definition of a Pledge and the Manner of Taking Possession and Custody

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate.

A pledge is an item given as security for the creditor’s debt, so that the creditor may recover his claim from it if the pledger fails to redeem it. Pledges are permissible in sales, in loans, and for all established rights.

Mālik further allows the pledge to precede the debt itself—for example, when one says, “This is a pledge for you against whatever you may lend me.” The pledge is concluded by verbal declaration and perfected by actual delivery.

Whatever a person may lawfully dispose of through sale and purchase may likewise be pledged; indeed, anything that may be sold may be pledged: real estate, livestock, garments, all kinds of merchandise, and gold and silver coins. With coins in particular, however, the one who receives them must seal them.

As for every other item that may be pledged—whether readily concealed or not—once it is received the pledge is valid.

Mālik also permits in pledges a degree of uncertainty or indefiniteness that would be impermissible in sales, such as pledging a runaway slave, a stray camel, a foetus in its mother’s womb, or fruit that