Q: Person A gave a person B a loan of R100 000. Person B also purchased a car from person A to the agreed value of R250 000 on a pay off basis.
Person A decided after a few months he wants his R100 000 back and full payment of the car. By this point, person A was already paid R200 000 for the car.
Person A then took the car back because person B could not meet the deadline for payment.
This all transpired over 8 months. So person A is sitting with the R200 000 plus the car and never wanted to give person B a cent back claiming usage charges, insurance charges, wear and tear cost, etc.
After much back and forth person A gave person B R25 000 back. Was this fair in the eyes of Islam ?
A: If person B was given time to pay the both debts and person A came before the time ended and took back the car in lieu of the debts owed to him, then this was not permissible.
However, if the credit period ended and person B still did not pay his debts due to which person A took the car in lieu of what was owed to him, then in this case, it is only permissible for person A to take the outstanding amount of the debt which is owed to him. If he takes any amount more than what is due to him, it will not be permissible.
In total, person B owed person A R350 000 (through him taking the loan of R 100 000 from person A and through him buying the car for R250 000 from person A).
Since person B has already paid person A R200 000 from the full amount, he now still owes him R150 000.
By person A taking back the car (worth R250 000) as well as the R200 000 which person B paid him for the car, he has taken R450 000 from person B (i.e. he has taken his loan amount of R100 000, the entire car amount of R250 000 and he has also taken R100 000 extra).
Hence, he has taken R100 000 extra from person B. Through him returning only R25 000, he still owes person B R75 000.
Note: The above ruling is in the case where the value of the car is still R 250 000. However, if the car got damaged due to which the value of the car depreciated, then the ruling will differ accordingly.
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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