—whether that increase is inherent to the article or separate from it. If, however, the claimant is unable to describe it, the item is not to be delivered to him, for it remains a trust in the finder’s possession and may not be handed over to one whose ownership has not been proven.

Fifth: If, after a full lunar year of public announcements, the owner still has not appeared, the object becomes the property of the finder. Before making any use of it, however, he must record its identifying features so precisely that, should the owner come at any time and describe it, he will return the object to him if it is still extant, or pay him its equivalent if it is not. The finder’s ownership is therefore provisional and is cancelled the moment the rightful owner appears.

Sixth: The scholars have differed concerning property found within the Sacred Precinct (ḥaram): does it, like property found outside the Sanctuary, become the finder’s after a year of announcements, or can it never be owned at all? One group adopts the first view, relying on the generality of the prophetic traditions. The other group contends that such property can never be owned; it must be announced perpetually and may not be taken into personal possession, citing the Prophet’s words about Mecca: “Its lost property is lawful only for the one who will keep announcing it.”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH) chose the latter opinion, stating, “It can never be owned in any circumstance because of the prohibition concerning it; rather, it must be announced forever.” This, he argued, is the clear purport of the report that forbids taking possession of it.

Seventh: If someone abandons an animal in an open wasteland because it can no longer walk or because its owner is unable to look after it, whoever takes the animal becomes its owner. This is based on the hadith: “Whoever finds a mount whose owners have become incapable of keeping it and have set it loose, then takes it, it is his,” and because the animal has been relinquished out of disinterest, making it akin to any other property that has been discarded.