Getting Rid of Debts Whose Owners Are Unknown
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Some people go out on the road, and it is a road, and there are no papers. How do they get out of the road? Yes. He has a sin, an expert, and something else, and there is no delay in good.
Answer:
Are the debts owed to him or by him? Debts are owed to him, and he does not know their people. To clear his conscience of these, he must give them to their owners; he does not clear his conscience from the mountains by giving them to their owners. If they are known and present, he gives them to them. If they are not present, he gives them to their heirs. If they are dead, he gives them to their heirs. If no one from their heirs is known, and he searched and found no one and did not come to know of anyone, he gives them in charity with the intention that the reward is for their owners.
He says: Some people go out on the road, and it is a road, and there are no papers. How do they get out of the road? Yes. He has a sin, an expert, and something else, and there is no delay in good.
Answer:
Are the debts owed to him or by him? Debts are owed to him, and he does not know their people. To clear his conscience of these, he must give them to their owners; he does not clear his conscience from the mountains by giving them to their owners. If they are known and present, he gives them to them. If they are not present, he gives them to their heirs. If they are dead, he gives them to their heirs. If no one from their heirs is known, and he searched and found no one and did not come to know of anyone, he gives them in charity with the intention that the reward is for their owners.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 13/6 شرح الأصول الثلاثة / صالح الفوزان — youtube.com (1:13:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.