1372 – Hudhayfah (d. ) reported: Allah the Exalted will bring forward a servant of His to whom He had granted wealth and will say to him, “What did you do in the worldly life?” The man will answer—and they cannot conceal anything from Allah—“My Lord, You bestowed Your wealth upon me. I used to conduct trade with people, and leniency was part of my nature: I would make matters easy for the well-off and grant respite to the hard-pressed.” Allah will say, “I am more entitled than you are to act in that way—overlook (his shortcomings); remit the account of My servant.” ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir and Abū Masʿūd al-Anṣārī said, “That is exactly what we heard from the mouth of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” Reported by Muslim.

[Commentary]
These three traditions fall under the chapter on the virtue of generosity and ease in buying and selling; they also show the excellence of pardoning people and overlooking their faults.

In the first narration, that of Abū Hurayrah (d. ), the Prophet ﷺ said, “A man used to lend to people,” meaning that he dealt with them on credit. A “debt” (dayn) is not restricted to what many people think today—buying an item only to sell it and profit from the price. Rather, in Islamic law anything that becomes an established liability is a debt. Even if you sell someone a car for an immediate, non-deferred price and he does not hand you the money, that price becomes a debt he owes. Likewise, if you rent out a house and the term ends while the tenant has not paid the rent, the unpaid rent is a debt resting on him.

The point is that credit-dealing means transacting with others in a way that is not hand-to-hand spot payment. One sells to them and buys from them and then excuses the insolvent. This man used to say to his servant, “If you see someone in straitened circumstances, waive the debt for him; perhaps Allah will waive something for us.” The servant would do exactly that, and eventually the man met Allah