whose owner we do not know no longer has to be returned to him; it is therefore spent for the benefit of the Muslims, and charity is among the greatest ways of benefiting them. This is a general principle governing all property whose owner is unknown and to whom it cannot be returned. Such property—including wrongfully seized property, borrowed items, and deposits entrusted for safekeeping—is spent for the benefit of the Muslims according to Mālik, Ahmad, Abū Hanīfah, and others. When it is distributed in this way, a poor person may accept it, because the person giving it does so on its owner’s behalf.

This differs from giving charity from misappropriated property, concerning which the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said in an authentic hadith:

“Allah accepts neither prayer without purification nor charity from misappropriated property.”

This refers to someone who takes possession of property and gives it in charity despite being able to return it to its owner, or gives it as an act of devotion, just as he would give his own wealth in charity. Allah does not accept this from him.

The former, however, gives it in charity only to free himself from wrongdoing and sin. His charity is therefore equivalent to paying a debt he owes, returning entrusted property to its owners, or handing property over to an agent entitled to receive it. It is not the kind of charity included in the Prophet’s words:

“Nor charity from misappropriated property.”