when you deal with each other in contracting a loan.

when you deal with each other in contracting a loan...and Allah knows all things: "at-Tadayun" is to give a loan to another; “al-imlal” and “al-imla” both mean ‘to dictate’; “al-bakhs” is to diminish, to do justice; “as-sa’mah” is to be fed up; to disdain; “al-mudarrah” on the paradigm of “al-mufa‘ilah” from “ad-darar” (harm) means to harm one another; “al-fusuq” is transgression, refusal to obey; ,”ar-rihan" has also been recited as ar-ruhun both are the plurals of ar-rahn (the thing mortgaged, pawned or deposited as security).

“And let him who owes the debt dictate . . . but if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding. . ." The whole phrase “he who owes the debt” has been repeated here instead of using a pronoun. It was done to remove any possible misunderstanding, as a pronoun could easily be mistaken to refer to the “scribe” mentioned in the preceding sentence.

"...or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, then let his guardian dictate..." The manifest and separate pronoun “huwa”( translated here as “himself”) has been included in the sentence to show that in this particular case the debtor and his guardian both have the right to dictate. In the first two situations, when the debtor is deficient in understanding or is weak (in body or mind), the guardian has total authority, and the debtor himself cannot deal in his own affairs.

But in this third situation when the debtor is, for any reason, unable to dictate himself, then the guardian shall have joint authority to do so. Therefore, this pronoun has given the following meaning to the phrase: “what such a debtor himself can do, he should do it ; but what he is unable to do, his guardian shall do it". “. . .

so that if one of the two errs, the (second) one of the two may remind the other”: In this sentence a word, hadhar is understood before "an"; together they literally mean, “lest one of the two errs. . .”; the words, “one of the two” have been repeated in this sentence. While at first glance it would appear that the second phrase could be replaced by a pronoun, the fact is that the two phrases do not have the same significance.

The first phrase (if one of the two errs) refers to either of the two without pointing to a particular woman; the second phrase (the one of the two may remind. . .) points particularly to the second who has not erred. That is why we have added the word (second) in its translation.