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Fatwa CenterDisposal of items confiscated from thieves
Question
what is the islamic ruling on war booty and income derived from thief to the the unbeliever? please mention the reference in the holy Qu'ran and hadeeth and sunnah
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His Slave and Messenger.
Anything that is confiscated from thieves should be returned to its real owner if he is known, otherwise, it should be spent on the public benefits of the Muslims, as an act of doing what is possible, and to protect wealth from being wasted. In his “Majmoo’ Al-Fataawa”, Ibn Taymiyyah 
said: “If one has at hand something taken by means of usurpation, or borrowing, or in the form of deposits or mortgages, and there is no way to know its real owners, he should give it in charity on their behalf, spend it on the public benefits of Muslims, or hand it over to a just person to distribute it to the public benefits of Muslims, i.e. the benefits considerable under Sharee’ah. No doubt, to keep the property forever for someone whose emergence is unexpected is of no use, rather it exposes the property to be spoiled or to be usurped by wrongdoers.”
As regards what is taken as spoils of war from the disbelievers in case there is war between them and the Muslims, then it should be deposited in the Muslim treasury. For further information, see Fatwa 116159.
Allaah Knows best.
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