What a debtor must do when the creditor cannot be found

A question from a debtor who could not reach his creditor to repay him, in which Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya answered that liability for a debt is cleared only by repayment or release, so the debtor searches for the creditor and then for his heirs; if that fails, the money goes to Nasser Social Bank, which stands in the place of the public treasury, and if that too fails he may give it in charity on the creditor's behalf. ¹

The questioner asked: I borrowed a sum of money from a person some time ago and have tried many times to reach him to repay it, but could not; what should I do? ¹

Dar al-Ifta began by explaining that financial debts are among the most important rights that must be honoured, that a debtor's liability remains burdened by the debt even after his death, and that the texts therefore urge paying it before death or obtaining the creditor's release, citing the hadith of Abu Hurayra that a believer's soul is held by his debt until it is paid for him, recorded by Ahmad, al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, and Ibn al-Athir's explanation in al-Shafi fi Sharh Musnad al-Shafii (2/433) that the soul claims from him what he left owing and is held to account for it in the hereafter until it is paid. ¹

It then said that the borrower must repay well, matching the lender's kindness, by al-Rahman 55:60 and the hadith in al-Bukhari and Muslim that the best of you are those who repay best; if the debtor has lost track of the creditor he must do his utmost to find him; if he cannot because the creditor has died or his whereabouts cannot be learned, he returns the debt to the lawful heirs; and if he cannot reach the creditor or his heirs, he must pay it to the Muslims' treasury, represented in Egypt by Nasser Social Bank, the official body to which unclaimed estates revert. ¹ It explained that the Hanafis and Hanbalis treat the treasury not as an heir but as the place to which property with no known claimant reverts, like a found item, quoting Ibn Nujaym in al-Bahr al-Raiq (5/112) that the inheritance of one with no known heir goes to the treasury, Ibn Abidin's gloss that the property is placed in the treasury to be spent on its purposes, since the treasury is not an heir in the Hanafi view, al-Buhuti in Kashshaf al-Qina (4/437) that the property of one with no heir goes to the treasury, which is not an heir but keeps lost property and is a public body and interest, article 4 of the Inheritance Law 77 of 1943 that an estate passes to the public treasury when no one is entitled to it, and al-Sanhuri in al-Wasit (9/44-46) that the treasury is now represented by the state treasury, which acquires an heirless estate by operation of law rather than by taking possession. ¹

It then recorded that a group of scholars held that such a debt is given in charity on behalf of its owner, and that if he is later found he is given the choice between letting the charity stand and having its reward, or taking the money back, in which case the reward goes to the giver; it quoted from Ibn Abi Shayba's Musannaf the saying of Ibrahim al-Nakhai that if you owe a man a debt and do not know where he or his heir is, give it in charity for him and offer him the choice if he comes, and the act of Abdullah ibn Masud, who bought a slave girl for seven hundred dirhams, lost track of her seller, announced it for a year and then gave the price in charity, saying that it was for the seller, and if he refused it was on Ibn Masud and for him, with Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's comment in Fath al-Bari (9/430); it also quoted al-Haskafi in al-Durr al-Mukhtar (p. 356) that one who owes debts and wrongs to unknown owners must give their amount in charity from his property, with no disagreement among the Hanafis, al-Nawawi in Rawdat al-Talibin (11/246) on the order of clearing one's liability, to the owner, then his heir, then a judge of good repute, then charity to the poor with the intention of compensating the owner if he is found, and al-Ruhaybani in Matalib Uli al-Nuha (4/68), citing Ibn Rajab, that debts owed are like physical property and are given in charity for those entitled to them. ¹ It chose for its fatwa the view stated by the majority of scholars, that a debt whose owner cannot be reached is handed to the ruling authority represented by the treasury or what stands in its place, as consistent with the aim of sharia in clearing the debtor's liability and with the institutional reality of the modern state, noting that the jurists made charity conditional on the absence of a judge of good repute, which suited their age, and that exhausting one's efforts in the search should go beyond the debtor's own enquiries to police stations, civil registers and public social-media pages. ¹ It concluded that the debt must be paid and the liability is cleared only by repayment or release, so the questioner must do his utmost to find the creditor; if that fails the right passes to his heirs; if that fails the money is paid to Nasser Social Bank; and if that too fails he may give the amount in charity to the poor with the intention that its reward go to the owner of the right. ¹

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyya published this fatwa on dar-alifta.org as no. 8994, on details page 24189, among the fatwas of the Grand Mufti Nazir Muhammad Ayyad, dated 21 May 2026, in the debts category. 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.