Rules regarding Hawala

(Transferring the Debts etc.)

2298. If a debtor directs his creditor to collect his debt from the third person, and the creditor accepts the arrangement, the third person will become the debtor. Thereafter, the creditor cannot demand his debt from the first debtor.

2299. The debtor, the creditor and the person to whom collection is referred, if he is not bankrupt, should be adult and sane, and none should have coerced them, and they should not be feeble-minded, that is, those who squander their wealth. Similarly, one should not be Mahjoor (a person who is prohibited by the Mujtahid from having a disposal over his wealth), however, if the debt is transferred to a person who is solvent, if one who is transferring the debt or to whom it is being transferred is Mahjoor, there is no harm.

2300. Transferring the debt to another person will be in order, provided to whom it has been transferred is not in debt and he accepts it. And if a person wishes to affect a transfer to a debtor for a commodity other than that for which he is indebted, for example, if he transfers the debt of wheat while he is indebted to him for barley, the transfer will not be in order, unless he accepts it. Rather, even if it is the same commodity if transferred to another person, he should accept it, otherwise, the transaction will be void.

2301. It is necessary that a person should actually be a debtor at the time he transfers the debt. Therefore, if he intends taking a loan from someone, he cannot transfer the prospective debt in advance to another party, telling the would-be creditor to collect the debt from the party.

2302. The debtor and the other party, to whom the debtor wants to transfer the debt, must exactly know the category and the quantity of the debt. For example, if his debt comprises of ten kilos of wheat and ten dollars owed to one person, and he tells him to go and collect either of the two debts from a certain party and do not specify it, that transfer will not be valid.

2303. If the debt is fully identified, but the debtor and the creditor do not know its quantity and category at the time of assigning the transfer, the transaction is in order. For example, if a person who has recorded the debt he owes to someone in his books, assigns a Hawala or transfer of debt before referring to the books, and later, after consulting his records, informs the creditors about the quantity of his debt, the transfer is in order.

2304. The creditor may decline to accept the transfer of debt, although the person in whose name the assignment has been given may be rich, and may not fail to honor the Hawala.

2305. If a person accepting the Hawala is not a debtor to the person giving the Hawala, if he accepts the Hawala or transfer, he cannot demand the amount of the Hawala from the person who gave it, before honoring the Hawala. However, if the creditor compromises for a lesser amount, the person honoring the Hawala can demand the total amount of sum which the debtor agreed to pay.

2306. When the conditions of the transfer of debt or Hawala have been fulfilled, the person affecting the Hawala and the person receiving it cannot cancel the Hawala, and if the person receiving the Hawala was not poor at the time the Hawala was issued, the creditor cannot cancel the Hawala even if the recipient becomes poor afterwards. The same will apply if the recipient of the Hawala was poor at the time it was issued, and the creditor knew about it.
But if the creditor did not know that the person to whom Hawala has been issued is poor, and when he comes to know of it, even if the recipient has turned rich, the creditor can abrogate the Hawala transaction, and demand his money from the debtor himself.

2307. If the debtor, the creditor, and the person to whom the Hawala is assigned agree among themselves that all of them or any one of them has a right to cancel the Hawala, they can do so in accordance with the clause of the agreement.

2308. If the person issuing a Hawala pays the creditor himself, at the request of the person in whose name the Hawala was issued, who was also his debtor, he can claim from the recipient of Hawala what he has paid to the creditor. And if he has paid

without his request, or if he was not his debtor, he cannot demand from him what he has paid.