Book of Luqṭa (Lost Property)

Picking up lost property is recommended for anyone who is confident of his own trustworthiness; some authorities even hold that it is obligatory. For one who lacks that confidence it is not recommended, though on the soundest opinion it is still permissible, while for an openly sinful person it is disliked.

According to the school, calling witnesses at the moment of picking it up is not required, and a pickup carried out by an open sinner, a minor, or a dhimmī living under Muslim rule is legally valid. The stronger view, however, is that the article is taken away from the flagrantly sinful person and placed with a trustworthy custodian; his own announcements are not relied upon, and an overseer is appointed to assist him. The guardian must remove the article from the child, make the prescribed announcements, and, when acting in the child’s best interests—just as he may borrow on the child’s behalf—may assume ownership of it for the child. Should the guardian neglect to take it from the minor until the article is lost or ruined while still in the child’s possession, he is liable.

The stronger position is that a slave’s pickup is invalid, and his announcements have no legal effect. If his master subsequently takes the article from him, that is regarded as a new act of pickup.

I say: The school holds that the pickup made by a mukātib whose emancipation contract is valid, and by one who is partially free, is sound; the found article then belongs jointly to him and to his master. If they have agreed to alternate profits, it belongs—on the more correct view—to the one whose turn it happens to be. The same ruling applies to all other uncommon forms of earning or expense, with the exception of compensation for bodily injury. And Allah knows best.

Section

When an owned animal that small predators cannot subdue—whether because of its strength, like a camel or a horse; its swiftness, like a hare or a gazelle; or its ability to fly, like a pigeon—is found in open wilderness, the judge may take it into custody for safekeeping, and, on the sounder opinion, anyone else may do so as well, whereas taking it up is forbidden