Hadith 727

Narrated Abu Bakr bin 'Abdur-Rahman on the authority of Abu Hurairah (RA): We heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) say: "If a creditor finds his very property with a debtor who becomes bankrupt, he is more entitled to it than anyone else." [Agreed upon]. Abu Dawud and Malik reported the aforesaid Hadith from the narration of Abu Bakr bin 'Abdur-Rahman, as Mursal (broken chain after the Tabi'i), with this wording: "If anyone sells some goods (on credit) and the one who buys them becomes bankrupt, and the seller does not recover any of the price of his goods, and he then finds his very goods (with him), he is more entitled to them (than anyone else). However, if the buyer dies, the owner of the goods finds his actual goods he has most right to them." al-Baihaqi reported it with a full chain of narrators but graded it weak, following Abu Dawud. Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah reported the aforesaid Hadith from the narration of 'Umar bin Khalda which has: "We went to Abu Hurairah (RA) regarding a friend of ours who was bankrupt. He said, "I shall certainly pronounce judgment about him in accordance with the judgement of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ). Whoever becomes bankrupt or dies, and a person finds his actual goods (remaining with that man), he has most right to them.'" [al-Hakim graded it Sahih (authentic); Abu Dawud graded it Da'if (weak). He also considered this addition of the mention of 'death' to be weak].