Incarcerating Debtors When There Is Doubt about His/Her Financial Status

When debtors are unable to repay, they are granted a respite till have capacity to pay. The question arises as to whether the primary rule is capacity or incapacity and indigence of the debtor to pay his debt. And also whether he is incarcerated until he pays the debt if the primary rule is his capacity and he could not establish his indigence. In this article, we try to show that the primary rule is incapacity of debtors taking into account the conceptual contrast between monetary capacity and incapacity and it seems based on traditions (Hadith) that incarcerating the debtor is admissible until his/her financial status is ascertained. The point is that this is not a punishment but the incarceration is merely for identifying the debtor's financial status. So it cannot last more than needed for identification of the debtor's financial status.