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What is the correct action to take regarding symbolic items stolen by an unknown thief whose original owners are unknown: Should they be discarded, or should their value be estimated and given as charity to the poor, or is it permissible to donate their value for jihad in the way of Allah?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Stolen goods must be returned to their owners if possible. Otherwise, their value should be given as charity on behalf of the owners for good causes, and the goods should not be destroyed, as wasting money is forbidden. Money acquired through unlawful means, if usurped or stolen and its owner is known, must be returned to him. However, if the owner is not known, the money should be given as charity. If the unlawful gain was with the owner's consent (like usurious transactions), it should be given as charity without intending it for the original owner. If you doubt the money with which you bought the goods, you are not obliged to dispose of them, because unlawful money relates to your liability, not to the specific item itself. If you doubt the amount of unlawful money, you should strive to estimate what will absolve your liability and then dispose of that amount.

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

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