What is the ruling on a person who owes a debt to someone whose location is unknown?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. This questioner says: I have small amounts owed to several people, but I do not know where some of them are, and it is difficult for me to find their location. What should I do, especially since some of these amounts do not exceed fifty riyals? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
Preserve the rights of the people; they are the ones who will seek them out. They are the ones who will ask for them; it is not you who must seek them out. They will seek them out. You preserve them and record them with you; write them down and document them with you, and they will come to seek them out. Yes. So, if the matter ends and they do not come, and you despair of their coming, give them in charity on their behalf. Yes.
May Allah reward you. This questioner says: I have small amounts owed to several people, but I do not know where some of them are, and it is difficult for me to find their location. What should I do, especially since some of these amounts do not exceed fifty riyals? Please advise us, may Allah reward you.
Answer:
Preserve the rights of the people; they are the ones who will seek them out. They are the ones who will ask for them; it is not you who must seek them out. They will seek them out. You preserve them and record them with you; write them down and document them with you, and they will come to seek them out. Yes. So, if the matter ends and they do not come, and you despair of their coming, give them in charity on their behalf. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم من عليه دين لشخص لا يعرف مكانه؟ للشيخ الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.