Wednesday, 22 April 2026 (5 Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah 1447 AH)
Question: A man picked up a gold bracelet and sold it to his companion who was with him when he picked it up. After a long time, the buyer wanted to clear his liability, but he had already sold the gold. His purchase had been in Saudi Arabia, and he was in a state of ignorance and heedlessness of the religion. Later, after he sat with students of knowledge, learned from them, returned, and repented to Allah, what is required of him?
Answer – and with Allah is success: The scholars of the madhhab have said that if a finder picks up lost property for himself, not in order to identify its owner, his ruling in respect of liability is the ruling of a usurper (ghāṣib). And the buyer from a usurper has the same ruling as the usurper with respect to liability. On that basis, the finder is liable, and the buyer is also liable.
What I see is that if the buyer knows that the finder has freed himself from responsibility for what he picked up and has cleared his liability regarding it, then the buyer’s liability is also cleared and he does not need to free himself as well. But if (the original) wrongdoing has not been cleared, then it is upon the buyer to free himself from it.
We only said that each of the finder and the buyer is liable for the lost property – such that it is obligatory upon each of them to return it or to return its value – because each one of them took possession of it and held it; thus he is liable to be called to account for it, since it is not valid to take ownership of a Muslim’s right except with the willingness of his own soul, and each of them took and possessed it without the owner’s willing consent.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2