The ruling on sheltering a thief with the intention of advising him and hoping for his repentance
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Shaykh, regarding the fornicator, or for example the thief, if one shelters him with the intention of advising him and perhaps he will repent before the ruler can get hold of him?
The Shaykh : There is no harm. If it is known that the man is sincere in his repentance, there is no harm in letting him go.
The questioner : Even if the owners of the stolen goods, for example, demand that his hand be cut off, meaning...
The Shaykh : If he repents before the ruler can get hold of him, what was a right belonging to Allah, such as cutting off the hand or anything else, is dropped from him. But as for the right of the human being, he is killed.
The Shaykh : There is no harm. If it is known that the man is sincere in his repentance, there is no harm in letting him go.
The questioner : Even if the owners of the stolen goods, for example, demand that his hand be cut off, meaning...
The Shaykh : If he repents before the ruler can get hold of him, what was a right belonging to Allah, such as cutting off the hand or anything else, is dropped from him. But as for the right of the human being, he is killed.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 353- حكم إيواء السارق بقصد نصحه ورجاء توبته - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.