Saturday, 18 April 2026 (1 Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah 1447 AH)
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 I did. How do I clear myself of this problem? I know the house the child came out of, but I fear that if I go to them to settle the matter they will have me imprisoned; and traveling there is risky for one evading [the law], and I am not able to obtain a pilgrimage visa. What should I do?
Answer—and Allah is the One who grants success: If the matter is as described, then the taker of the blanket should form the intention that he will return it—or return its value—when he is able and secure in himself; “Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.” [Al-Baqara:286]. If he dies before he is able, then there is no sin upon him, if Allah wills.
It may be said: If the item taken is trivial, and the taker has repented, and the circumstances are as described in the question, then remorse suffices. The triviality of an item differs according to time and place; and an old blanket in Saudi Arabia is a trivial item.
A workable gauge for what counts as “trivial” in this context is: an item such that, if a person went to unusual lengths to return it or to seek pardon for it, people would blame or criticize him for doing so.
There is no doubt that if a person went to such lengths to return something worth one riyal—or three, or five, or twenty—the very person owed twenty would be the first to reproach him, if he learned the person came only for that, saying: “This item does not warrant what you have done,” and might accuse him of feeble intellect or religious extremism—this, assuming the situation is as in the question.
That said, it is not proper that, should one someday pass by the owner of such a trivial wrong, he be lax about explicitly seeking pardon or paying the value; that is safer and more cautious.
Yes, if the item taken is trivial, and the taker has a strong presumption that its owners are magnanimous and would be happy to pardon what he took were they to know, then he is not obliged to seek pardon. Nor is mutual settlement or pardon required in matters that customarily incur no claim—such as eating a cucumber, an apple, an orange, or the like. Likewise, a child is not obliged—upon coming of age—to seek pardon for what local custom accepts of children’s eating fruit, so long as he did not exceed what is customary for children.
We say this because people do not feel constrained in such matters and, if they learn of them, they do not demand payment.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2