The ruling on the zakah of lost money
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: If a person finds a large amount of money and takes it.
The Shaykh:
What is it?
The questioner:
He says: If a person finds a large amount of money and takes it, and it remains with him for years, is he required to give charity or not?
The Shaykh:
He is required to pay zakah, meaning. Yes.
The questioner:
Yes.
The Shaykh:
Yes, he pays zakah because he knows its owner. So if he finds its owner and gives it to him, he calculates the years that have passed. No, this is considered lost money. He owes no zakah except in the year he took possession of it. In the years it was [lost], meaning, he owes no zakah, because he does not know if it will come back or not. So he owes no zakah except in the year he takes possession of it.
May Allah reward you. The questioner says: If a person finds a large amount of money and takes it.
The Shaykh:
What is it?
The questioner:
He says: If a person finds a large amount of money and takes it, and it remains with him for years, is he required to give charity or not?
The Shaykh:
He is required to pay zakah, meaning. Yes.
The questioner:
Yes.
The Shaykh:
Yes, he pays zakah because he knows its owner. So if he finds its owner and gives it to him, he calculates the years that have passed. No, this is considered lost money. He owes no zakah except in the year he took possession of it. In the years it was [lost], meaning, he owes no zakah, because he does not know if it will come back or not. So he owes no zakah except in the year he takes possession of it.
Source
الزكاة على اللقطة — alfawzan.live
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.