O you who believe! when you deal with each other in
contracting a debt for a fixed time, then write it down; and let a scribe
write it down between you with fairness; and the scribe should not refuse
to write as Allah has taught him, so he should write; and let him who owes
the debt dictate, and he should be careful of (his duty to) Allah,
his Lord, and not diminish anything from it; but if he who owes the debt
is unsound in understanding, or weak, or (if) he is not able to
dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness; and call in to
witness from among your men two witnesses; but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from
among those whom you approve of the witnesses, so that if one of the two
errs, the (second) one of the
two may remind the other; and the witnesses should not refuse when they
are summoned; and disdain not of writing it (whether it is) small
or large, with its fixed time; this is more equitable with Allah and
assures greater accuracy in testimony, and the nearest (way) that
you may not entertain doubts (afterwards) ; except when it is ready
merchandise which you give and take among yourselves from hand to hand,
then there is no blame on you in not writing it down; and have witnesses
when you trade with one another; and let no harm be done to the scribe or
to the witnesses; and if you do (it) then surely it will be a
transgression in you, and fear Allah; and Allah teaches you; and Allah
knows all things (282). And if you are on a journey and you do not find a
scribe, then (there may be) a security taken into possession; but
if one of you trusts another, then he who is trusted should deliver his
trust, and let him fear Allah, his Lord; and do not conceal testimony, and
whoever conceals it, his heart is surely sinful; and Allah knows what you
do (283).
COMMENTARY
QUR’AN: 0 you who believe! when you deal with each other
in contracting a loan...and Allah knows all things:
"at-Tadayun" is to give a loan to another; “al-imlal”
and “al-imla” both mean ‘to dictate’; “al-bakhs” is to diminish, to do justice; “as-sa’mah”
is to be fed up; to disdain; “al-mudarrah” on the paradigm of
“al-mufa‘ilah” from “ad-darar” (harm) means to harm one
another; “al-fusuq”
is transgression, refusal to
obey; ,”ar-rihan" has also been recited as ar-ruhun both are the plurals of ar-rahn (the thing mortgaged, pawned or deposited as
security).
“And let him who owes the debt dictate . . . but
if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding. . ." The whole phrase
“he who owes the debt” has been repeated here instead of using a pronoun.
It was done to remove any possible misunderstanding, as a pronoun could
easily be mistaken to refer to the “scribe” mentioned in the preceding
sentence.
"...or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, then
let his guardian dictate..." The manifest and separate pronoun
“huwa”( translated here as “himself”) has been included in
the sentence to show that in this particular case the debtor and his
guardian both have the right to dictate. In the first two situations, when
the debtor is deficient in understanding or is weak (in body or mind), the
guardian has total authority, and the debtor himself cannot deal in his
own affairs. But in this third situation when the debtor is, for any
reason, unable to dictate himself, then the guardian shall have joint
authority to do so. Therefore, this pronoun has given the following
meaning to the phrase: “what such a debtor himself can do, he should do it
; but what he is unable to do, his guardian shall do it".
“. . . so that if one of the two errs, the
(second) one of the two may remind the other”: In this sentence a word,
hadhar is understood before "an"; together they literally
mean, “lest one of the two errs. . .”; the words, “one of the two” have
been repeated in this sentence. While at first glance it would appear that
the second phrase could be replaced by a pronoun, the fact is that the two
phrases do not have the same significance. The first phrase (if one of
the two errs) refers to
either of the two without pointing to a particular woman; the second
phrase (the one of the two may remind. . .) points particularly to the second who has not
erred. That is why we have added the word (second) in its
translation.
“And fear Allah”; The believers should guard
themselves against disobeying the orders and prohibitions promulgated in
this verse. “And Allah teaches you”; it is an independent sentence, not
connected with the preceding one, “and fear Allah”. The sentence describes
the grace of Allah bestowed on the believers. In this respect it is like
the words of Allah in the verse of inheritance: Allah makes it clear to you lest you err
(4:176). Allah in both
these sentences shows that He has bestowed His bounties upon the believers
by teaching them the rules of religion and by instructing them as to what
they were allowed to do and what not.
Some people have said that the sentence, “and fear
Allah, and Allah teaches you”, were connected to each other. According to
them, they show that there is a relation of cause and effect between the
two - when people fear Allah then Allah teaches them.
Comment: The principle mentioned above is
correct in itself, and is supported by other verses of the Qur’an and by
traditions. But this verse has nothing to do with that principle. The
second sentence begins with “and”; if it had wanted to enunciate that
principle, the word “and” would not have been there; the sentence would
have been like this: “and fear Allah, He will teach you”. Moreover, the
said interpretation is not supported by the context; if we accept it then
the end of the verse will be quite irrelevant to the main topic of the
verse.
The above-mentioned reconstruction of the verse
gives us another argument against that interpretation. Had that meaning
been correct, the divine name, Allah, would not have been repeated in “and
Allah teaches you”, a pronoun would have been more appropriate.
In these three consecutive short sentences, the
divine name, Allah, has been repeated three times. It was necessary in the
first sentence, “and fear Allah”; it had to be repeated in “and Allah
teaches you”, because it was an independent sentence; and in the last
sentence, “and Allah knows all things”, the name gives the proof of this
statement - He knows all things because He is Allah.
The two verses contain nearly twenty basic rules
concerning loan, mortgage, evidence, etc. There are numerous traditions
about these and related topics. But the proper place to go into these
details are the books of jurisprudence. Therefore, we shall not quote them
here.
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