Answer: He may dispose of it by selling it, giving it as a gift, pawning it, dedicating it as an endowment, or through any other form of disposal, because it has entered his ownership. Before the year has elapsed, however, he does not own it, because the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “If its owner does not come, it remains a trust in your custody.” (1) It is therefore a deposit and a trust in his hands, and he may not dispose of it unless retaining it would harm its owner. In that case, he may dispose of it—for example, if the found property is of a type that does not keep, such as perishable goods. In that case, he sells it and preserves the price. Or it may be something that remains intact but whose upkeep costs many times its value, as when he finds a sheep. In that case, he should sell it even though he has not acquired ownership of it, because keeping it would harm its owner. If it remained with him while worth three hundred riyals, and every day it consumed forty riyals’ worth of feed, then over the course of a year it would cost approximately fourteen thousand four hundred riyals. Is it in anyone’s interest for it to remain? No. The proper course is to sell it; indeed, in this case he must sell it, unless he expects to find its owner soon, within a day or two, in which case he should not sell it.

Issue: If he takes a found item on the assumption that it is worthless and not something ordinarily sought after by people of average means, but it turns out to be otherwise—for example, he thought it was brass or copper, only to discover that it was gold—then he may return it to the place where he found it.

“Whenever its claimant comes and describes it, it must be handed over to him.”

His statement, “Whenever its claimant comes and describes it, it must be handed over to him”: “whenever” is a jussive conditional noun. The meaning is that at whatever time its owner comes, if he describes it, it is to be handed over to him.