Giving charity on behalf of the owner of stolen money whose location is unknown
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
This questioner says: A person was robbed a long time ago,
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
A person stole a long time ago, and Allah granted him the ability to reform. He wants to give the owner of the right his right, but then he did not know him, so he gave charity on his behalf. Is this action permissible?
The Shaykh:
If identifying him and delivering his right to him is difficult, he gives it as charity with the intention that the reward belongs to the owner. However, if identifying him is not difficult, he must return his money to him by any means or seek his forgiveness.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
This questioner says: A person was robbed a long time ago,
The Shaykh:
Yes.
The questioner:
A person stole a long time ago, and Allah granted him the ability to reform. He wants to give the owner of the right his right, but then he did not know him, so he gave charity on his behalf. Is this action permissible?
The Shaykh:
If identifying him and delivering his right to him is difficult, he gives it as charity with the intention that the reward belongs to the owner. However, if identifying him is not difficult, he must return his money to him by any means or seek his forgiveness.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh,
Source
75-اللقاء الأسبوعي مع الشيخ صالح الفوزان - 32 — archive.org (57:01)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.