I lent a friend money and he wants to pay me back a bit extra as a thank-you — is that ribā?

If the extra was stipulated, agreed, or even understood as an expectation at the time of the loan, it is ribā by consensus, because a loan (qarḍ) in Islam is an act of kindness in which you are entitled to your capital and nothing more: "you shall have your principal sums — you do no wrong and are not wronged." But if nothing was conditioned and the borrower, purely of his own accord at the time of repayment, gives back more or better, that is permissible and praiseworthy: the Prophet ﷺ borrowed a young camel and repaid it with a superior one, saying, "The best of people are those best in repaying." Be precise about the well-known maxim "every loan that brings a benefit is ribā": it is not authentically established as a statement of the Prophet ﷺ — it is reported from the Companion Fuḍālah ibn ʿUbayd, and Ibn Ḥajar noted that the chains raising it to the Prophet ﷺ are all weak — though its meaning is sound and the scholars agree on it as a principle. As a precaution, gifts and favours from a debtor while the debt is still outstanding should be declined, or counted against the debt, since they can be a disguised increase.

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