The Ruling on Repentance While in Debt
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah bless you. We move on to another letter sent by the brother, the questioner Salim al-Filfil. He says: A young man in the early stages of his life has repented from all his sins, but he has debts and has not been able to pay them off due to his limited means. Is his repentance considered valid?
Answer:
The repentance is valid between him and Allah. As for the debts, they must be paid if he is able to do so. If he is not able, he should wait until he is able. Allah the Exalted said:[Al-Baqarah 2:280] The rights of people are not satisfied by repentance alone; they must be paid to them along with repentance to Allah the Mighty and Majestic. Yes.
May Allah bless you. We move on to another letter sent by the brother, the questioner Salim al-Filfil. He says: A young man in the early stages of his life has repented from all his sins, but he has debts and has not been able to pay them off due to his limited means. Is his repentance considered valid?
Answer:
The repentance is valid between him and Allah. As for the debts, they must be paid if he is able to do so. If he is not able, he should wait until he is able. Allah the Exalted said:
And if someone is in hardship, then [let there be] postponement until [a time of] ease. But if you give [from your right as] charity, then it is better for you, if you only knew.
وَإِن كَانَ ذُو عُسْرَةٍ فَنَظِرَةٌ إِلَىٰ مَيْسَرَةٍ وَأَن تَصَدَّقُوا خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/225 — archive.org (16:57)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.