Profit gained from ill-gotten money

03/04/2011| IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu Alaikum. One person who earned some money by cheating somebody and then with that money he started a business and the business grew well and he has a lot of money. Later he gave back the money to whom he cheated. His claim is that now whatever the wealth he has is clean, but I don’t think so. Please enlighten us with the truth. Jazaakumullaahu khairan

 

Fatwa:

 

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.

 

The scholars differed in opinion about the profit which results from ill-gotten money, whether it is the person who took this money who deserves it, or the person from whom this money was taken, or that it should be divided amongst them equally. It appears that the third opinion is the most preponderant and the most just, because the profit is a result of the money of the first person and the result of the work of the second person, so the profit should not be given to only one person. Rather, the profit should be divided between the two exactly as if they were co-partners.

 

This third opinion is the one by which 'Umar may Allah be pleased with him, ruled, and this is the choice of Ibn Taymiyyah .

 

Allah Knows best.

  

Fatwa answered by: The Fatwa Center at Islamweb