Demanding back what was given to eat out of friendship

Question

Question: Two persons became friends with each other; for a period each of them, in friendship, fed the other and gave him drink, and they also kept giving cash. Some time later a rift arose between them. One said: “Return what I fed you and gave you to drink, and the cash.” The other said: “Make the reckoning; although this is bad, I am ready.” So the reckoning was made. The second said: “Make my reckoning too.” The accounts of both were reckoned, and an excess amount was found owed by one of them.

Answer

If, at the time of feeding, giving drink and giving cash, it was neither declared a loan (qard) verbally nor was it in anyone’s mind that it was a loan, but all this took place within friendly relations, then it will not be called a loan, and demanding it will not be valid.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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