The Ruling on Returning a Borrowed Item and Replacing It with Something Better
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, if I use something belonging to a person and then replace it with something more valuable or better, what is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
For that.
The questioner:
I used something belonging to a person and then replaced it with something more valuable or better, so what is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
If you use something belonging to a person, you must return that item to him, you must return that item to him, because this is the meaning of a loan: you borrowed something from him and used it. You are required to return it, unless it has been destroyed. If it has been destroyed, this is a matter of scholarly disagreement: does a loan carry a guarantee of compensation or not? There is disagreement among the scholars. However, if he has a right over you, such as a loan, or the price of a sale, or any other debt, then if you give him more than his right, that is a good way to fulfill the debt, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
Honorable Shaykh, if I use something belonging to a person and then replace it with something more valuable or better, what is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
For that.
The questioner:
I used something belonging to a person and then replaced it with something more valuable or better, so what is the ruling in this case?
The Shaykh:
If you use something belonging to a person, you must return that item to him, you must return that item to him, because this is the meaning of a loan: you borrowed something from him and used it. You are required to return it, unless it has been destroyed. If it has been destroyed, this is a matter of scholarly disagreement: does a loan carry a guarantee of compensation or not? There is disagreement among the scholars. However, if he has a right over you, such as a loan, or the price of a sale, or any other debt, then if you give him more than his right, that is a good way to fulfill the debt, as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said:
The best of you are those who are best in repaying their debts
خيركم أحسنكم قضاء
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، بداية من باب الصلح — islamhouse.com (1:16:43)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.