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Is the Hadith, "Indeed, Jibreel (Gabriel) forbade me from praying over one who is in debt," authentic, and why doesn't the Imam ask about the deceased's debt before praying over him?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) would not pray over one who died while indebted, and he would command Muslims to pray over him, as a deterrent against incurring debt. Then, when Allah granted conquests, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "I am more worthy of the believers than their own selves. So, whoever among the believers dies and leaves behind a debt, then its repayment is my responsibility; and whoever leaves behind wealth, then it is for his heirs." Some scholars have held the view that it is permissible to refrain from praying over perpetrators of major sins and sinners as a deterrent to them. It is also permissible for a well-known scholar to refrain from praying over some debtors as a deterrent to others and to intimidate them. However, the more authoritative view is that refraining from praying over a debtor has been abrogated by his (peace be upon him) saying: "Whoever leaves behind a debt, then its repayment is my responsibility."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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