وَحَدَّثَنِي مَالِكٌ، عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ سَعِيدٍ، عَنْ أَبِي بَكْرِ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَمْرِو بْنِ حَزْمٍ، عَنْ عُمَرَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ، عَنْ أَبِي بَكْرِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ بْنِ الْحَارِثِ بْنِ هِشَامٍ، عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ، أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ " أَيُّمَا رَجُلٍ أَفْلَسَ فَأَدْرَكَ الرَّجُلُ مَالَهُ بِعَيْنِهِ فَهُوَ أَحَقُّ بِهِ مِنْ غَيْرِهِ " .
Malik related to me from Yahya ibn Said from Abu Bakr ibnMuhammad ibn Amr ibn Hazm from Umar ibn Abdal-Aziz from Abu Bakr ibnAbd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham from Abu Hurayra that theMessenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Ifanyone goes bankrupt, and a man finds his own property intact withhim, he is more entitled to it than anyone else." Malik spokeabout a man who sold a man wares, and the buyer went bankrupt. Hesaid, "The seller takes whatever of his goods he finds. If the buyerhas sold some of them and distributed them, the seller of the wares ismore entitled to them than the creditors. What the buyer hasdistributed does not prevent the seller from taking whatever of it hefinds. It is the seller's right if he has received any of the pricefrom the buyer and he wants to return it to take what he finds of hiswares, and in what he does not find, he is like the creditors." Malik spoke about some one who bought spun wool or a plot of land,and then did some work on it, like building a house on the plot ofland or weaving the spun wool into cloth. Then he went bankrupt afterhe had bought it, and the original owner of the plot said, "I willtake the plot and whatever structure is on it." Malik said, "Thatstructure is not his. However, the plot and what is in it that thebuyer has improved is appraised. Then one sees what the price of theplot is and how much of that value is the price of the structure. Theyare partners in that. The owner of the plot has as much as hisportion, and the creditors have the amount of the portion of thestructure." Malik said, "The explanation of that is that thevalue of it all is fifteen hundred dirhams. The value of the plot isfive hundred dirhams, and the value of the building is one thousanddirhams. The owner of the plot has a third, and the creditors havetwo-thirds." Malik said, "It is like that with spinning andother things of the same nature in these circumstances and the buyerhas a debt which he cannot pay. This is the behaviour in such cases." Malik said, "As for goods which have been sold and which thebuyer does not improve, but those goods sell well and have gone up inprice, so their owner wants them and the creditors also want to seizethem, then the creditors choose between giving the owner of the goodsthe price for which he sold them and not giving him any loss andsurrendering his goods to him. "If the price of the goods hasgone down, the one who sold them has a choice. If he likes, he cantake his goods and he has no claim to any of his debtor's property,and that is his right. If he likes, he can be one of the creditors andtake a portion of his due and not take his goods. That is up to him." Malik said about someone who bought a slave-girl or animaland she gave birth in his possession and the buyer went bankrupt, "Theslave-girl or the animal and the offspring belong to the seller unlessthe creditors desire it. In that case they give him his complete dueand they take it." Translation Not Available
Book Ref: Muwatta Imam Malik Book 31 Hadith 1375
Web Ref: Muwatta Imam Malik Book 31 Hadith 89