He regrets taking usable items that others discard

12-12-2013 | IslamWeb

Question:

Dear Brs. In Islam, Assalamu Alaikum. I have as few Islamic related questions to ask. I appreciate if you may provide me the email of some scholars in Islam that I could ask my inquires. Thank you I have had strange experiences in several occasions that I feel I need to seek for possible answer. Once I notice a guy putting a good looking car Jack outside his house. I asked him if he is discarding it. He said yes. I asked him if I could have it. He haply offered it to me. Shortly after I drove away, something hit my car and cause damage. I got the feeling that the cause could be due to my request from that guy to have the Jack. In the complex apartment building that I live, the residents often leave their unwanted stuff on the table in the hallway for whoever wants to take. A few times I did pick up some of those items and shortly after that (a few days later) by some incidents I came to lose money 10 times more than the price of those items that I had taken. This has happened to me quite many times. I have got the impression and a strong feeling that Allah (Azza-wa-jall) is giving me a signal. The signal is that Allah (Azza-wa-jal) considers me as a Khalifa (a prince) on earth and that I should not take anything that people give away. In other words, Allah (Azza-wa-jal) wants me to act very dignified. Not to ask or accept anything that the people want to give away. Again, the lost that I have received shortly after taking some of the stuff that people in my building give away were much much more than if I would have bought them brand new. Is my feeling of prohibition for accepting things that people give away correct??? Please give me advice in these matters. Thank you.

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

It is permissible to benefit from something whose owner has willingly abandoned. Al-Insaaf, authored by Al-Mardaawi, reads: “If a person is first person to find something lawful, like wild game, ambergris or musk…or what people abandon because they do not want it, then he has the right to take it. Also, if a person is the first to find a lost item that is too insignificant to be searched for, or a foundling (an abandoned child), or whatever falls from snow, manna or any other lawful things, then he has most rights to it. There is no difference of opinion about this.”

As regards asking people for what they are no longer in need of, then this is permissible and it is not included in the prohibition of begging, as others are not harmed by being asked for what they do not need. Qawaa’id Al-Ahkaam fi Masaalih Al-Anaam, authored by Al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abdussalaam, nicknamed as the Sultan of the Scholars, regarding asking people for something, reads: “As regards asking for what is permissible, then if this is something which the person who is asked is not harmed by giving it away or refusing to do so, then this is permissible.”

However, if you do not ask or take what people do not need, then this is good.

With regard to what happened to you, we cannot assert anything about it.

Allaah Knows best.