How to fulfill the rights of people we do not know

Question : This questioner, Madaawi, says: My problem is that I performed Hajj twelve years ago in a state of heedlessness. She says: I used to take vessels and clothes from some shops; I knew some of the owners, and I did not know the others. What should I do? May Allah reward you with good. Now I have turned back to Allah and repented, and I want to fulfill these rights that are upon me to the owners of these shops. I have maintained all the obligatory prayers, the voluntary prayers, and the night prayers. So please guide me in light of my question.

Answer : Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I send prayers and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment. I say to this woman: If she has repented, I ask Allah the Exalted to accept repentance from us and from her. As for what she took from people, if she knows the people from whom she took these items, she must return them to them if they still exist, or their equivalent if they have been lost. If they have died, she must return them to their heirs. If she does not know them, she must give them in charity on their behalf. Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, knows them, and by doing so, she is absolved.