Is it permissible for one who finds something useful in the trash to take it?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
If a person finds something valuable or something useful in the trash, should he take it or leave it?
The Shaykh:
No, he does not take it if it is valuable. This is evidence that it was thrown out by mistake and appeared with the trash by error. One does not throw out something valuable. This is a lost item, yes, it came out with the trash by mistake, from the category of error. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says:
The Shaykh:
Also, the people of the trash are known, so you take it to them, and it is not called a lost item. This is not called a lost item, because its people, its owner, are known, and the owner of the house or the nearby place, so its owner is known. It is not a lost item, is it? Yes.
If a person finds something valuable or something useful in the trash, should he take it or leave it?
The Shaykh:
No, he does not take it if it is valuable. This is evidence that it was thrown out by mistake and appeared with the trash by error. One does not throw out something valuable. This is a lost item, yes, it came out with the trash by mistake, from the category of error. Yes.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says:
The Shaykh:
Also, the people of the trash are known, so you take it to them, and it is not called a lost item. This is not called a lost item, because its people, its owner, are known, and the owner of the house or the nearby place, so its owner is known. It is not a lost item, is it? Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، هل يجوز لمَنْ وجد شيئًا يُنتفع به عند القمامة أن يأخذه؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.