Voluntary donation by a debtor

Question

Question: A person is trading with five hundred rupees and owes six hundred rupees. While in this debt, if he wishes to give some help to a madrasa, a mosque and the like, may he do so or not? Or does repaying the debt take precedence? And if he helps, is he deserving of reward (thawab) or not?

Answer

This donation is at the level of nafl (a voluntary deed), whereas repaying the debt is fard. If a person performs nafl while the fard still remains upon him, he does receive reward for it, and he will also be called to account for delaying the debt. Hence it is not correct to say that he will not receive reward! However, he should take care to repay the debt.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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