What is the ruling on living in a house whose residents steal water from the state without paying the price?

The questioner : Their debt is a fictional one.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He said, "I just mentioned this to my father. I said, 'Father, this is not permissible!' So he started shouting at them. He said, 'Okay, brother, I am now in a problem. I need to go to the bathroom, I need to use the watermelon water that we throw away, we use it with this water, and all the life facilities in the house. He said, 'I have become [one who uses] drinking water, I go out to buy water from outside and drink, but there are some things I cannot do, like the bathroom, like eating.'"

The Shaykh : What is the benefit of this talk?

The questioner : Yes?

The Shaykh : What is the benefit of this talk?

The questioner : What is it worth?

The Shaykh : What is it worth? What were they doing before?

The questioner : What were they doing?

The Shaykh : The ones who moved into the house today?

The questioner : No, my Shaykh, not today.

The Shaykh : Yes, what were they doing before?

The questioner : They were pulling [water] via the shashmo; the meter was present and counting for them.

The Shaykh : Do you understand what they were doing?

The questioner : I don't understand what you mean, what were they doing, my Shaykh!

The Shaykh : Brother, did they have water before?

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, where were they getting water from?

The questioner : From the pipes, my Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Subhan Allah, I did not know that they were from the pipes!

The questioner : Perhaps I do not understand your question.

The Shaykh : Not for the price?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : That is what they are doing now, just as they were doing before, they are doing it now. What does it mean to exaggerate matters? By Allah, we need to drink, we need to cook, we need to bathe, we need, we need, and so on. What does all this talk mean? Was this not the situation before?!

The questioner : My Shaykh, may Allah honor you.

The Shaykh : It was before.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : How were they handling it?

The questioner : This is correct regarding his father and mother and the whole house; they do not have this religious aspect, so they keep stealing with this water and they are not asking me. This young man is committed [to religion] inside this house, meaning the issue of the house, my Shaykh, is that they are taking water, the house is taking water in this unlawful way.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : But our problem, my Shaykh, is the young man's problem alone.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Yes, that is right, meaning now they will be betrayed. Imagine, my Shaykh, that they go, for example, to bring tanks with money.

The Shaykh : Yes.

The questioner : As a solution, yes, they do not want them, they said, "Since the trust was taken from us, the pipe, we will take it by force from it."

The Shaykh : Well, if this assumption is correct, our answer is like what we are always asked, and always: My father, all his money is riba and haram.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : What am I doing? Will you betray and live on your own? No, I do not want to live on my own.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : There is no source of income for me, and I have no profession or craft, and so on.

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : So we tell him now: We tell you, live with your father within the limits of necessary life, and keep in mind to get rid of this haram.

The questioner : Fine, well, my Shaykh, may Allah reward you with good.