the common people: “A thief who steals from a thief is like an heir receiving from his father.” An heir’s inheritance from his father is lawful, whereas for a thief to steal from another thief is unlawful. Yet the common people deem it lawful, and this is mistaken. It is true that it is not legally classified as theft, but it entails liability and sin.
“If a legally accountable person takes a niṣāb from a secure place appropriate to it, from inviolable property in which he has no claim of right, doing so covertly, his hand is to be cut off, ………”
His statement, “If a legally accountable person takes a niṣāb from a secure place appropriate to it, from inviolable property in which he has no claim of right, doing so covertly, his hand is to be cut off”: “If” is a conditional particle; the conditional verb is “takes,” and its result is “his hand is to be cut off.” Thus, everything that follows the conditional particle constitutes the condition.
His statement, “a legally accountable person,” refers to either a Muslim or a dhimmī; thus, there are only two categories, unlike one whose person and property are inviolable, of whom there are four categories.
The author did not say “an adult of sound mind,” because this was mentioned previously among the general conditions.
His statement, “a niṣāb”: the niṣāb here is different from the niṣāb in the chapter on zakat. Here, it is one-quarter of a dinar or, according to the established position of the school, three Islamic dirhams; or goods equal in value to either of them. Thus, when a legally accountable person takes this amount, he has taken a niṣāb.
His statement, “from a secure place appropriate to it”: ḥirz means safeguarding, so that something secured is something safeguarded. “A secure place appropriate to it” means a place in which property of that kind is normally kept. This varies, as will come, if Allah wills.
Thus, the secure place for property is that in which it is customarily kept. For example, wood and iron are customarily kept in storage facilities, or in