The ruling on one who dies with a debt payable in installments
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
A message was sent from the Eastern Region by one of the female listeners, saying: (Umm Muhammad. A. Q.) from Baqiyah. Our sister has several cases; in one of them, she says: A person died, and he had a debt to one of the institutions for settling invoices, and this debt will be paid in monthly installments, lasting a year, or less, or more, for example, according to an agreement made between the heirs and the institution. Will the deceased’s liability remain suspended until all the debt is paid off, or is it cleared from the moment payment begins? What is your opinion on this? And what solution do you see as appropriate so that the deceased’s liability is cleared? Knowing that these amounts had accumulated with the institution because he was hospitalized during that period. Please guide us, may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
If the debt is due immediately, and there is sufficiency in the estate to settle it, then settlement is obligatory, and it is obligatory to hasten to pay off all the debts without delay. However, if the debts are deferred, they remain on their due dates, and there is no blame on the deceased in that. Or if the estate is insufficient and does not have what suffices for the debts, and it is the heirs who are paying them off, then there is no harm in them deferring payment, and they are doing good. But if there is sufficiency in the estate, the obligatory thing is to pay the debts quickly; because of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):Jami` at-Tirmidhi 1078Hasan (Darussalam).
So the obligatory thing is to hasten to pay off the debts from the estate, and not to defer or delay, except if the debts are deferred, then they remain on their due dates unless the heirs permit their acceleration.
And likewise, a debt from a real estate bank remains deferred as it is, on its installments. But if the deceased left nothing behind, then the heirs are doing good. So if they hasten to pay it off, or defer it, there is no blame on them; they are doing good in any case. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.
A message was sent from the Eastern Region by one of the female listeners, saying: (Umm Muhammad. A. Q.) from Baqiyah. Our sister has several cases; in one of them, she says: A person died, and he had a debt to one of the institutions for settling invoices, and this debt will be paid in monthly installments, lasting a year, or less, or more, for example, according to an agreement made between the heirs and the institution. Will the deceased’s liability remain suspended until all the debt is paid off, or is it cleared from the moment payment begins? What is your opinion on this? And what solution do you see as appropriate so that the deceased’s liability is cleared? Knowing that these amounts had accumulated with the institution because he was hospitalized during that period. Please guide us, may Allah reward you with good.
Answer:
If the debt is due immediately, and there is sufficiency in the estate to settle it, then settlement is obligatory, and it is obligatory to hasten to pay off all the debts without delay. However, if the debts are deferred, they remain on their due dates, and there is no blame on the deceased in that. Or if the estate is insufficient and does not have what suffices for the debts, and it is the heirs who are paying them off, then there is no harm in them deferring payment, and they are doing good. But if there is sufficiency in the estate, the obligatory thing is to pay the debts quickly; because of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him):
The believer's soul is suspended by his debt until it is settled for him.
نفس المؤمن معلقة بدينه حتى يقضى عنهSo the obligatory thing is to hasten to pay off the debts from the estate, and not to defer or delay, except if the debts are deferred, then they remain on their due dates unless the heirs permit their acceleration.
And likewise, a debt from a real estate bank remains deferred as it is, on its installments. But if the deceased left nothing behind, then the heirs are doing good. So if they hasten to pay it off, or defer it, there is no blame on them; they are doing good in any case. Yes.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.