Fatwas Archive

Question: Is it permissible for the rightful owner to give a bribe to the judge in order to obtain his right, or not?

Question: Suppose there is a place for distributing flour, gas, petrol, or the like, such as treating patients in a hospital, and the custom in those places is “first come, first served”—the first is treated first. Is it permissible for...

Question: A man owns a plot of land. Another man seizes it, claiming it is his. The owner offers fair recourse—litigation before any scholar the usurper chooses, any reputable arbiter he selects, or an oath—but the usurper refuses all of...

Question: Two men each has against the other a monetary wrong that is qīmī (value-based, not fungible). If the two wrongful claims are equal in value, do they offset one another? Or must each deliver to the other what he...

Question: I was in Saudi Arabia seven years ago and I took an old, worn blanket from a child and ran off with it; I only took it to keep warm. I am now back home and I regret what...

Question: A man worked with the Chinese on the Ṣanʿāʾ–Ṣaʿdah line for a salary, and he used to steal items like mines and the like. Now he wants to clear himself—what should he do?

Question: A man used to work in Saudi Arabia and was lax regarding other people’s rights, taking what did not belong to him by way of theft and betrayal. He has now repented and regretted it. How can he rid...

Question: If a man possesses something taken wrongfully, then repents to Allah, but he fears that if he returns it to its owner his reputation will be exposed—or that the owner will demand customary penalties, such as “purposes/claims” (maqāṣid) and...

Question: Is it permissible for a man to take soil or gravel from a private right-of-way, such as an irrigation channel for saplings or the like? And if he has taken, what is incumbent upon him?

Question: Three men stole a car from Ṣanʿāʾ, then sold it to the father of one of them. The father then died, and his son—the thief who was one of the three—together with his brothers, sisters, and mother, inherited the...