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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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Picking up pens thrown in the schoolyard

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh! I work as a teacher, and sometimes I find pens thrown in the yard, and the students do not pick them up. Is it permissible to take them, since if they are left there they will be thrown in the trash?

Answer:
They mentioned in the chapter on lost property that trivial things that have no value are to be taken and benefited from, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a date in the road, so he took it and said
If it were not that I fear it is from the zakah, I would have eaten itلو لولا اني اخشى انها من الزكاه لاكلها
This indicates that things that have no value, or have a slight value, which the leaders of the middle class do not pursue, are to be taken, even if they do pursue things like a rope, a stick, a date, or a pen that has been thrown away and its owner has given up on it.
As for if the pen is valuable, if the pen is valuable and it fell from its owner, then this is not permissible. You do not take possession of it, but rather you carry it as a favor, so that it is known, it is identified, until its owner comes, yes.
Source شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، باب حد السرقة — islamhouse.com (1:04:06)

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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