Gold given to a father-in-law and claimed after his death

A question from a woman who gave her father-in-law gold jewellery and an ounce of gold and claimed her right after his death, when the heirs offered a cash sum, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that a loan is repaid in the form in which it was taken, so borrowed gold is returned as gold by weight. ¹

A woman asked about gold jewellery and an ounce of gold she had given her father-in-law; years later, after his death, she claimed her right, and the heirs offered her only 1,000 dinars, while she wanted the gold. ¹

The Department answered that a loan is handing property to someone who benefits from it so that he returns its like, permitted for the borrower and recommended for the lender, and that the borrower must repay it in the form in which he borrowed it: cash is returned as cash and gold as gold by weight, because ownership in a loan is established on receipt and settles as a debt in the form received. ¹ It cited al-Khatib al-Shirbini's statement in Mughni al-Muhtaj that a fungible item is repaid with its like in a loan because that is closest to the lender's right, and the decision of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy at its fifth session that debts are repaid with their like, not their value. ¹ It distinguished two cases: if the lender sold the gold and handed over its price in cash, the amount of cash must be returned; if she handed over the gold itself and the borrower then sold it, its like must be returned by weight. ¹ It said that in the second case there is no objection to repaying in cash on the spot if both parties agree on the day of repayment rather than before, provided the gold price of that day is used and the exchange is completed in the same sitting. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3927, dated 2 December 2024. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.