What is the ruling on lost property?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: I found a watch in the building where I live. I searched for its owner but could not find anyone claiming it. Then I handed it over to the building management, and they searched for its owner but did not find anyone. Then they returned it to me. May I benefit from it, or what should I do with it?
Answer:
No, you may not benefit from it except under two conditions: that a year passes over it, and that you publicize it for the entire year. You post notices on the building entrance and put up a notice for the residents stating that such-and-such has been lost. If a year passes and you have been publicizing it, then it becomes yours. These two conditions are the passage of a year and the continued publicizing of it, with no one coming forward for it. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. The questioner says: I found a watch in the building where I live. I searched for its owner but could not find anyone claiming it. Then I handed it over to the building management, and they searched for its owner but did not find anyone. Then they returned it to me. May I benefit from it, or what should I do with it?
Answer:
No, you may not benefit from it except under two conditions: that a year passes over it, and that you publicize it for the entire year. You post notices on the building entrance and put up a notice for the residents stating that such-and-such has been lost. If a year passes and you have been publicizing it, then it becomes yours. These two conditions are the passage of a year and the continued publicizing of it, with no one coming forward for it. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم اللقطة؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.