Unlawful Money and Its Disposal
This subtopic gathers questions on money already acquired in a way that is unlawful or doubtful. They include interest received, mixed money, and how to dispose of or purify it.
Questions readers ask here:
- What should one do who has unintentionally eaten food that is not theirs?
- How is sincere repentance and restitution for injustices possible when one is unable to repay them at once?
- Is it permissible to benefit from a deceased father's wealth if it is mixed with earnings from usury?
- Is it permissible to take money that will be given as a reward for an alleged success?
Questions about the work, rather than the money after the fact, belong under Working Around the Impermissible.
104 questions
What is the ruling on someone who stole physical items or money from relatives, friends, and various places, and has now repented with a sincere repentance, but is currently unable to return the stolen items to their owners for fear of exposure, and does not know the addresses of some of them, and is considering returning the value of the stolen money in the form of gifts, or disposing of the physical stolen items by distributing them, and is charity sufficient as expiation for the value of stolen items that cannot be returned to their owners?
Is it permissible to donate the monetary value obtained from an illicit relationship, after repentance and severing the relationship, if returning the money would re-establish the forbidden contact?
What is the ruling on money, the origin of which is unlawful, if it is invested in something lawful?
Is money earned considered lawful in light of a divorced woman's fear of her family who refuse to let her leave her job, and what is the ruling on her giving money to her colleagues while feeling that it is unlawful out of fear of their criticism? And are these fears of family and people considered shirk (polytheism)? And what is the ruling on touching the Mus'haf (Quran) and entering the mosque with this feeling of shirk? And does wudu' (ablution) become nullified by the emission of an air bubble from the anus without sound or smell, especially when holding back stool for prayer?
What should a young man do with the money and gifts he received from a girl he was in a relationship with before he became committed [to his religion], knowing that she became committed [to her religion] after him?
Do I become exempt from responsibility, and is it permissible for me to own funds acquired through the management committee, despite its violation of the association's or country's laws, if the management committee bears the responsibility?
Is giving unlawfully acquired money as charity to a needy mother, with the intention of donating it on behalf of its original owner, considered a valid act after repentance?
Is it permissible for someone who stole money and repented to place the stolen amount in a mosque with the intention that it belongs to the owner of the money, due to the impossibility of delivering it directly to him?
Are these funds permissible for me, which were disbursed to me without work, or should I donate them to a charitable organization, knowing that I am unable to return them?
What should a person who has defrauded people in sales do, when he now lacks sufficient funds to return the rights to their owners, and how should he deal with a non-Muslim person whom he defrauded by selling counterfeit goods as original?
Is it permissible to donate stolen money to a Quran memorization center, or must it be given as charity to a poor family?
What is the Sharia's stance on money laundering crimes, and what is the ruling on ill-gotten money after it has been laundered or whitened?
Is it obligatory to return a stolen pornographic film to its original owner after repenting from it and destroying it?
Is donating money to the poor, after it was impossible to return it to the German company from which it was defrauded, considered an absolution of one's responsibility?
What should a person do with money acquired through illicit means, who has repented, and whose victims have forgiven him? Should he donate it to any charity, and is it permissible to give it to his adopted siblings?
What should I do to atone for the sin of taking money from a wallet I found, knowing that I feared being accused of theft if I returned it, and I have now forgotten the owner's address?
Does the rejection of the prayer of one who bought a garment for ten dirhams, one dirham of which was unlawful, include one for whom the money was a gift or who found it?
Must I disclose the $350 I found in a garment belonging to my siblings after a month has passed without anyone asking about it?
What should I do with the salary I received for more than six months, knowing that I spent part of it, and exerted effort in obtaining and collecting it?
What is the ruling on using ill-gotten money to build a toilet or a path to the mosque?
Is it permissible to eat from food taken without right from provisions designated for the unit, and would it become permissible if taken with the intention that the person in charge of the kitchen had given it, and how can one be absolved of this?
What is the ruling on lawful money, part of which was used to pay a bribe; does it become unlawful and must one dispose of it?
Is it permissible to donate the value of a non-original phone sold to someone who cannot be reached, with the intention that the reward and merit be for them?
Does the sin of using money acquired from an illicit relationship and spent on family fall away after it is returned once lawful money becomes available?