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Is it permissible to buy goods confiscated by customs for personal use or for trading?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Customs duties, or "mukus," are a tax on goods and trades entering a country. Taking customs duties from the trades of Muslims is impermissible. However, taking them from non-Muslims is permissible by the consensus of the Companions, as they remained silent when Umar ibn al-Khattab took a tenth (ushur) from the trades of non-Muslims. This is also supported by the hadith: "Indeed, the ushur is upon the Jews and Christians, and there is no ushur upon Muslims." And by the hadith: "The collector of mukus will not enter Paradise." What is legislated to be taken from the wealth of Muslims under normal circumstances is zakat. Therefore, taking taxes and confiscating the wealth of Muslims due to their failure to pay them is an injustice and aggression, and trading in such confiscated wealth is not permissible.

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

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