The story of the man who lent a man one hundred gold dinars, from Sahih al-Bukhari.

The Shaykh : In Sahih al-Bukhari, for example, it is narrated that a man said, “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: A man from those before you was approached by another man who said, ‘Lend me one hundred dinars.’ He said, ‘Bring a guarantor.’ He said, ‘Allah is the guarantor.’ He said, ‘Bring a witness.’ He said, ‘Allah is the witness.’ So he lent him one hundred dinars in gold. Today the price is high, and tomorrow it will be low, and so on. They agreed on a day for repayment, and the borrower set out with the one hundred dinars to trade in the sea. It appears that Allah the Exalted took hold of his hand and guided him. When the appointed day came, he was unable to go to his creditor. What did he do? Here is the wonder: he came to a plank, carved it, and packed it with one hundred dinars in solid gold, filling it well. Then he stood on the shore and said, ‘O my Lord, You were the witness, and You were the guarantor.’ He threw this plank into the sea, as if saying, ‘By Your wisdom and power, You have arranged this for me. I was unable to go to my partner to hand over the one hundred dinars.’ So Allah the Exalted, in a breach of the custom, commanded the waves to carry this plank to the town where his partner was. His partner had gone out on the appointed day to meet him with the debt and waited in vain. Then his eyes fell upon a plank before him, tossed about by the waves. It occurred to him to take this plank as firewood. He took it and found it heavier than its nature. He went to the house and broke it open, and there he found the one hundred dinars glittering in wonder. Soon his partner came. Look at the truthfulness, sincerity, faith in Allah, and responsiveness to the rulings of the Shari'ah. He ignored what he had done; he did not say to the creditor, ‘Did the trust reach you?’ He did not say it because he had not sent it by a normal route, but by a route that breaches the custom. Therefore, he passed over what he had done previously and lent him another one hundred dinars. Look at how the famous proverb in some lands is realized: “Birds fall with their own kind”. Both were truthful with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). When the rich man saw another one hundred dinars, he told him the story. He could have kept it secret, for there was no witness or observer, or anything to take the hundred and put it in his pocket; it was his right. As for what came to him by way of the sea, there was no name registered by mail there to be held accountable. But Allah the Exalted is the Accountant. So he told him the story, saying, ‘This is my story, and the plank was such and such.’ He said, ‘By Allah, I did this because I felt that the term had come, and I was unable to come to you at the appointed time, so I did what I did.’ He said, ‘May Allah bless you in your wealth. Allah has fulfilled it for you and returned the one hundred dinars to you.’ This is an explanation of an authentic hadith in al-Bukhari, traced to the Prophet, and it is not from the Isra'iliyyat.