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Is it permissible to demand our right to a treasure that one of our neighbors stealthily extracted from our land, given the evidence of the use of sorcery and jinn?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is not permissible to use jinn to extract treasures. A treasure either bears a sign of Islam, such as the name of the Prophet (peace be upon him), in which case it is considered a lost item (luqata). It should be announced for a year, and if its owner is not found, the finder may possess it, returning it to its owner whenever he appears. Or it may bear a sign of pre-Islamic ignorance (Jahiliyyah), such as a cross, in which case one-fifth of it must be extracted and disbursed according to the channels of zakat. Scholars have agreed on this, based on the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "And in a rikaz (buried treasure) there is one-fifth." They differed regarding the remaining four-fifths, whether it belongs to the finder or to the owner of the land. Or it may bear no sign at all, in which case they differed whether it is a lost item (luqata) or a buried treasure (rikaz). It is recommended to present the matter to the judiciary.

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

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